Saving Them From The Darkness
by CarolineKenello
Summary: After Gray's life is shattered by the demon Deliora destroying his village and everyone he knew and cared about, Ur who is an ice Mage and her student Lyon find him and take him in. Together, the three people all who have lost family, become something like a family, can they move forward from their dark pasts? This is a long multichaptered story of Gray Lyon and Ur's time together.
1. The Beginning Of The End

**A/N**

 **Rated T just to be safe because of Gray's nightmares or flashbacks that will probably come in later chapters.**

 **Credit for Lyon's jokes go to my sister, specifically the IceBerg-er one.**

 **First Chapter title taken from what Keys said to Juvia about when Gray's village was destroyed by Deliora being the beginning of the end, saying that because it ended with Ur using iced shell that it would happen the same way with Gray too.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the Characters**

"Lyon! We have a survivor!" Ur called to the white haired boy.

"H-hey! Are you okay?" Lyon asked as he and his teacher approached the trembling not quite conscious boy who was half pinned under the rubble of a crushed building caused by the demon; Deliora's, rampage.

The boy trembled, and opened his eyes to see two unfamiliar faces looking down at him. He could just make out what they were saying, before the horrible memories resurfaced and he let his head drop back to the ground with a sob.

His parents, his friends, his home, everyone and his village was gone. Viciously taken away by the monster...the demon responsible for all this...Deliora.

The boy felt the crushing pressure on his bruised and scraped up body lessen as he felt arms pulling him from the rubble.

Ur carefully knelt on the ground with the dark haired boy trying to figure out how badly injured the boy had been.

"You're safe now." Ur said quietly to the crying boy as she glanced over her shoulder at the completely wrecked village.

"M-mom...and d-dad..." The boy sobbed harder.

Ur felt her heart ache for all that this boy and the people here had suffered. And in such a short time. The village had been here perfectly fine this morning. But now...it had been destroyed in a mere few hours along with everyone in it except for this one boy. The sole survivor.

"What's your name?" Ur asked gently.

"Gray..." The boy replied in almost a whisper.

"You're safe now. Come on Gray, let's get you out of here." Ur said as she gently lifted the boy to his feet.

Ur supported him until he pushed her off, as she led them further from the village where she and Lyon helped Gray set wooden grave markers just on the edge of the ruined village. They didn't go near any of the bodies, just placed the markers around the village. She didn't want the boy to have to see it all again if they went down there, when she knew by the terror and pain in the boys eyes that he'd already seen it all. Seen things no child should ever have to see.

It was sunset and Lyon and Ur stood back as Gray knelt by the grave they had made for the boy's parents, putting a single flower down as he cried and made a vow to destroy Deliora to avenge them.

Ur narrowed her eyes, despite not knowing the child before this tragedy, she could tell this had put a darkness into the child that she was certain had not been there before. And she knew she had to bring him home, and hopefully she could find a way to help him.

It had been a long hike back up to Ur's house. And no one was feeling very talkative. Once they reached the house Lyon watched as Ur led the boy they'd found through the house and made him sit down on a chair as she grabbed a first aid kit to help him clean up his injuries.

Soon after she led him to the sofa and let him lay there for now, as she went to prepare a small meal for the three.

When it was done, Ur returned to the room she had left the boys in. Lyon immediately glanced up at her from the book he was reading. She glanced at the other boy, he appeared to have cried himself to sleep. She wasn't sure if the boy would feel like eating after what he'd been through but she decided to offer anyway.

Ur gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and gently awoke him to ask.

Lyon watched sympathetically from behind, but he couldn't ignore a growing annoyance at the fact his teacher hadn't payed much attention at all to him since they'd rescued this kid. And his annoyance only worsened slightly when the boy refused, saying he wasn't hungry ever so quietly.

Seriously? He and Ur had seen some of the aftermath of the village and yes it was horrible, but this was Ur, the greatest ice make wizard ever! She had helped him and brought him here and he hadn't even said thanks.

Realizing that he was probably being a little too hard on the kid, Lyon pushed those thoughts away. The boy hadn't just seen the aftermath as he and Ur had, he'd been there for the attack and likely had witnessed many people's deaths. It was pretty obvious considering how traumatized the kid was. It still annoyed him, but Lyon figured the younger boy would be willing to eat something tomorrow and by then he'd probably thank her. After all, he was probably still really freaked out and scared. He definitely looked upset.

Lyon glanced at the other boy sympathetically as he followed Ur into the kitchen for dinner.

"Is he going to be okay?" Lyon asked his teacher quietly.

Ur thought for a moment. Lyon didn't take it as a good sign.

"With time and support he should get better..." Ur replied thoughtfully. "He's not going to die if that's what you're worried about." Ur added as she smiled gently at her pupil, "Now let's get some dinner."

Relatively satisfied with the answer Lyon hurriedly gathered dishes and quickly set the table for the two of them, making sure it was absolutely perfect before Ur brought the food. He couldn't have anything out of place especially on such a bad day as this.

They didn't speak as much as they usually did, and Lyon felt a little worried about how things could change now that Ur seemed to have made up her mind and decided they were going to let Gray stay at her house for as long as he needed since he had no one or nowhere else to go to.

The next morning Lyon got up at the usual time, and changed into his daytime clothes, and brushed his teeth and his hair, and went straight to the kitchen, briefly passing the sofa where Gray lay still asleep with a wrinkled blanket lay half over him.

Guess he's not a morning person. Lyon thought, but wasted no time as he walked into the kitchen to greet his master.

"Good morning Master Ur," Lyon said brightly as he always did, there was no reason to change his morning routine up just because there was another person in the house.

"Good morning Lyon." Ur said with a yawn.

Lyon blinked, why did Ur look so tired? In the whole year that he'd been living here with her learning ice make, he had never seen her so tired looking.

Ur greeted her pupil with a friendly smile.

"Good morning Lyon." Ur said as she handed him a plate of pancakes.

"Thank you master Ur." Lyon said with as much gratitude in his voice as he could muster.

"You can go ahead out once your finished eating." Ur told him as she flipped some more pancakes.

"Aren't you coming?" Lyon asked, confusion and a slight bit of worry entering his voice.

"I'll be out in a little while. I'll have to let Gray know where we'll be, and see if he's up for breakfast." Ur replied.

"Oh...okay, sure." Lyon said as he lifted his fork to his mouth.

An awkward moment of silenced passed through the small house.

"Master Ur?" Lyon started, breaking the silence.

"Yes Lyon?"

"You look really tired. Are you sick or something?" Lyon asked worriedly.

Ur smiled, and walked over to her concerned little student and ruffled his hair. "I'm not sick. I was just up a little later than usual." Ur replied.

"Why master Ur?" Lyon asked, leaning foreword still worried for his master.

"Gray was having a rough night." Ur said after a moment.

"Oh..." Lyon said quietly.

After they had finished breakfast and Lyon had gone outside to practice his ice make training, Ur went into the living room to see if Gray was awake yet.

An hour passed and Gray finally woke up.

Gray slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, he was opened his mouth to say something, but as he opened his eyes, he realized that yesterday hadn't been a dream. Everything he knew was gone, and he was with the two strangers that had found him and brought him here.

"Gray," Ur started as she carefully approached the boy.

Ur sat down beside the boy and hesitantly wrapped an arm around him as his eyes filled with tears. Gray just shoved her off and slid off the sofa, glancing around for a moment.

After awhile Ur managed to convince Gray to come eat some breakfast. While he was eating, she told him that she was going to head just outside with Lyon for awhile in case he needed her. Gray's only response was a small nod.

After breakfast Gray wandered around the unfamiliar surroundings. He had never felt so alone. He wanted to wake up, or go back in time. He didn't want to just hang around this weird old cabin with the weird lady and her even weirder pupil.

Gray's grief swiftly turned to anger and he swung his small fist as hard as he could slamming it into the sofa. His hand hit the pillow so hard he felt it sting as it collided hard against the board from the frame of the sofa deep under the pillows and coverings.

Breathing heavily, he suddenly turned his attention to the window. He saw the lady and her pupil practicing some kind of magic.

Curious, and because he had nothing else to do, Gray watched them from the window, he could only make out their faraway shapes, and huge shapes of ice creations coming out of nowhere as they practiced. Gray watched, a slight hope rising inside of him.

Hours later Ur and Lyon entered the small cabin, both speaking happily of their time together outside while training.

Gray barely glanced up at them as he lay on his chest on the sofa, mostly lost in his thoughts and emotions.

Lyon had been relieved that everything with his teacher still felt normal despite the other kid that he knew was still in his teacher's house, and for now, his house as well.

Noticing Lyon was looking at Gray, Ur lowered her voice, "Maybe you should go talk to him. He could probably use a friend or someone around his age to talk to or play with."

Lyon thought for a moment, he still wasn't too sure about this guy. But who was he to question his masters wishes?

"Yes master Ur!" Lyon exclaimed trying to be a positive as he could about this.

"Terrific," Ur replied, "go try to get to know him. Use some of the old board games in the cupboard if you'd like."

"Yes Ur!" Lyon said smiling at her before turning to head for the living room.

Lyon walked into the living room and and hurried towards Gray.

"Hey," Lyon greeted, unsure as to whether the other boy was asleep or just laying around.

When Lyon didn't hear a reply, he took a seat on the sofa beside the other boy.

"Hey, you awake?" Lyon asked.

The other boy made a sound but Lyon couldn't tell what he'd said because his face was pressed against the sofa.

Lyon considered walking away; maybe the other boy was upset and wanted to be alone.

No, Lyon thought, Ur wants me to talk to him, and he's not going to get anything done just laying around like this all day.

At least when he'd lost his family, and spent years in an orphanage at least he hadn't sat around crying. He got up and put together some goals and dreams, and worked towards them constantly. They were what led him to leaving the orphanage in search of a strong wizard to teach him magic so he could be someone more than just that ignored orphan that he had once been. Now people would notice him. After all, he'd made lots of progress with his ice make training now that he was the student of the most powerful strong and amazing wizard in the world!

...and here was this kid laying around or crying, and making impossible vows of revenge without any way to accomplish them. Was he even trying?

Ur's right again, Lyon thought, this kid does need some help.

"So...I'm Lyon Vastia, you're name's Gray, right kid?" Lyon asked.

Lyon waited for a response.

"Yeah..." The boy with dark hair replied quietly.

Wow, this was going slow. Lyon thought in annoyance, but he stayed as positive and enthusiastic as he could. After all, Ur wanted him to do this.

"I'm nine years old and the student of the strongest wizard in the world!" Lyon boasted unintentionally. "How old are you?" He asked.

Gray stayed silent for a moment. Wondering what to say to this weird Lyon guy. He didn't care much for the conversation but he figured he had no good reason to keep ignoring the other boy.

"Eight." Gray answered as he rubbed his eyes, and pulled himself into a tight ball.

Lyon smirked. Now he felt like he was getting somewhere. He'd gotten a clear answer, and made him move. Now he had to get the boy to just get up already.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Lyon asked. "I'm going to be a super strong ice wizard like master Ur, and someday, I'm going to surpass her, I'm going to be the strongest wizard ever someday!" Lyon explained, his eyes shining dreamily.

Gray grimaced but glanced at the older boy slightly. Lyon's eyes gleaming with pride and determination.

Something about the older boy annoyed him so badly. Maybe it was because he was so upbeat and positive, when he himself couldn't even fake a smile. Let alone think of anything he wanted to be when he grew up. Everything he knew and loved was gone. What could there possibly be left for him now?

"Kid? You wanna tell me what you want to be when you grow up, or not?" Lyon asked growing slightly impatient.

"Nothing." Gray muttered in response.

Lyon frowned. Maybe he wasn't getting anywhere with this guy.

"Okay..." Lyon said slowly.

This kid needs a cheer up... Lyon realized. People all had different things that could cheer them up...now all Lyon had to do, was find out what worked for this guy. He decided to start with Ur's board game suggestion.

"Want to play a board game? Ur has some over there in the-" Lyon started.

"No." Gray interrupted.

Lyon frowned, jeez, this guy didn't have to be so rude. He couldn't said no thanks, or at least waited until he'd finished his sentence.

"Right...do you want to go outside and-" Lyon tried, but Gray immediately said no. "Right...uh..." Lyon stammered, trying to think up more ideas. "Where did the snowman keep his money?" Lyon asked, attempting a joke.

Gray made no reaction.

"In the snow-bank." Lyon told him.

Gray remained silent.

"Okay...how about another one..." Lyon said.

Gray felt his annoyance worsen.

"What kind of food do mountain climbers eat?" Lyon asked.

Gray gritted his teeth. He really didn't care.

"Iceberg-ers!" Lyon announced, "and I made that one up all by myself."

Lyon smirked proudly, but sighed when Gray gave no reaction. Did this guy ever smile?

"What did the ocean say to the other ocean?" Lyon asked.

Lyon watched Gray for a response, but when he didn't think he was going to get one he continued anyway.

"The answer is...nothing, it just waved." Lyon told the younger boy. "Why was six afraid of seven?" Lyon asked.

Still, Gray remained silent.

"Because seven eight nine!"

Gray breathed in shakily. Lyon's eyes widened.

Is he trying not to laugh but failing? Lyon wondered hopefully.

"Where did the cow go on his afternoon?" Lyon started, "he went to the moo-vies." "What does the gingerbread man put on his bed?" Lyon asked.

Gray's fists tightened.

"A cookie sheet!" Lyon finished.

Why isn't this working? Lyon thought, I'm great at telling jokes. Guess I'll have to try the common boring ones.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Lyon asked, "the answer is to-"

"I don't care!" Gray shouted suddenly.

Lyon startled and frowned at the other boy. He opened his mouth to say something, but had no idea what he could say. Lyon felt bad that his jokes hadn't worked, but he was also angry at the kid for how he kept interrupting him, how he didn't care about anything he said, even though he was just trying to help, and Lyon was willing to bet the little brat still hadn't said thank you to Ur for taking him in.

"Fine then!" Lyon shouted, "I was only trying to help, but you're being an ungrateful little brat!"

Gray felt so angry and sad and frustrated, that he was at a lost for words. He fell silent and turned away coldly.

Lyon got up and started out of the room.

Gray just turned away to look out the window again. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered how he used to play out in the snow with his parents and friends.

The white-haired boy, Lyon, had started to offer him to go outside and play earlier hadn't he? But it wasn't the same. Everyone he knew was gone. And besides, he'd just lost his chance even if he had wanted to do something with the other kid.

Gray curled up in a ball, and tried to calm down. Had that fight been Lyon's fault or his fault? Even he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he was hurting in so many ways and he didn't know what to do. He'd never felt so angry and sad and alone before in his life. He wished his mom and dad were here.

Then he remembered earlier when he saw a slight bit of the magic Lyon had said Ur was teaching him...what if...what if that magic was what he needed to beat Deliora and avenge his parents?


	2. To Rise Again

**Thank you so much, JaneGriffin for following my story and your great review!**

 **Thanks rose and 10, for reading and for your review. I hope you enjoy this next chapter!**

 **Thanks to Fwgaltx for reading and following this story. I hope you enjoy the rest that I'm working on writing and posting.**

 **And to the Guest who left a review who asked if I was going to end this with how it ended in canon... I haven't decided for sure yet, I'll most likely leave it on a happy note sometime before Gray hears about Deliora in Brago and decided to go after it. But as I said, I'm not sure how it'll go yet. But I'll probably end it happy.**

 **Thanks to everyone for reading. I hope you all enjoy it. The title of this chapter is because Gray's finally going to be getting off the sofa despite how upset he is from the loss of his family and friends. But you'll see what will help him Rise again after all the horrible traumatizing things the poor guy has been through. Here's chapter 2.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail Or any of the characters**

Lyon had walked away and gone into another room where he decided to read a book for awhile. When he had finally calmed down, he remembered how Ur had wanted him to help Gray by being his friend...that had sure worked out. He had totally ruined it. All because the kid was so rude. But...before some of that, he had been getting somewhere hadn't he? At least slightly?

"Lyon? What are you doing?" A voice asked from behind him.

"Master Ur!" Lyon exclaimed jumping to his feet.

Ur smiled gently.

"Things didn't go too well with you and Gray?" She asked.

Lyon felt slightly panicked. Ur had asked him to try to be friends and he failed, and now he had to disappoint her.

"I, I uh..," Lyon started a little panicked.

Ur just smiled slightly and nodded in understanding.

After a year teaching Lyon she knew how highly he thought of her, and how bothered he could get when he did something wrong. She still remembered when she first met him how she joked slightly about how he came inside and told her all about what he'd heard of her without telling her his name right away being bad mannered. The boy had completely freaked out and started apologizing. He had some extremely strong need for everything to always be perfect and exactly how he thought they were supposed to be. He was very determined but at times extremely obsessive.

"Don't worry. You can always try again, if you want to. Not everyone can get along right away, and he's not in a very good mood." Ur spoke softly.

"Not in a good mood...? He was being a total jerk! He doesn't listen to me at all and he yelled at me when all I did was try to cheer him up!" Lyon exclaimed, but lowered his head guiltily as Ur's smiled disappeared.

"Lyon," Ur started, "he's upset and grieving. He misses his family. He doesn't know either of us very well. He's angry. It's nothing personal against you." Ur explained.

"It's not just me he's rude to!" Lyon exclaimed. "I haven't heard him even thank you once. Not once! You even took him in and gave him free food and water! And you should've seen yourself this morning! You look exhausted! Did he not let you sleep or something?" Lyon asked breathing heavily.

Ur narrowed her eyes and looked at her young student. Lyon glanced at her, and she sat down beside him, gesturing for him to sit too, which he immediately obeyed.

"Lyon, he's seen horrible things. He wasn't trying to keep people up. He was having nightmares all night. I tried to wake him up from them but a few times I couldn't, so I stayed up and kept trying to find a way to help." Ur explained. "I chose to stay up. He didn't make me. He was so panicked I doubt he even remembers much of last night. Probably just all the violence he witnessed yesterday..." Ur explained quietly, glancing from Lyon and to the floor.

"I..." Lyon started after a moment. "I'm sorry...I was trying so hard but I just made him yell. We had a bit of a fight. I'm sorry...I...I'll go fix it, I'll try again and I won't fail you this time." Lyon told her.

"We can do this together. You can talk to him if you want to, but you don't have to." Ur told him, her smile returning.

"Yes master Ur." Lyon said smiling back.

Lyon went back to where Gray had been sitting. Gray was sitting mostly curled up by the window, staring out of it.

"H-hey..." Lyon said quietly. "I...uh..." He stammered as he tried to think of something to say.

There was an awkward silence. Lyon hadn't really done anything wrong, so he wasn't going to apologize, though he could say he's sorry for what the kid had been through? But Lyon had no idea what would be best to say.

So Lyon sat down on the sofa beside Gray.

"If uh...if you change your mind about the board games or playing outside then uh...you can let me know." Lyon said, as he glanced between outside and back at Gray. "What are you looking at?" Lyon asked.

There was a long awkward silence between the two boys. Neither spoke and it was driving Lyon crazy. Who knew someone could make things this awkward by literally not doing anything. The younger boy wouldn't even look at him.

Lyon sighed. Maybe he'd try again later.

Lyon slowly got up from the sofa and went to where his bed was, only to find Ur was moving it and another mattress.

"What are you doing?" Lyon asked slightly alarmed.

Ur glanced at him and smiled slightly like she always did.

"I'm making up the beds. Yours is now the bigger mattress that you and Gray will sleep on and the smaller one I'll use." Ur explained.

"But it's not in your bedroom anymore." Lyon said still staring at the large mattress and the smaller one that were now pushed against each other making it almost like it was a longer bed for all three of them.

"So...you're okay with all this?" Lyon asked skeptically, he wasn't sure he liked it that Ur wasn't going to have her bed in her bedroom where it should be.

"Of course." Ur replied smiling so genuinely that Lyon smiled back.

"Alright...can I go outside and watch the animals?" Lyon asked.

"Of course you can. Just don't go too far." Ur answered.

"Yes master Ur!" Lyon agreed as he turned to head outside. "See you later!" He called.

Just as he was about to head out the front door, Lyon turned to where Gray was still sitting. Should he ask the kid if he wanted to come? Lyon wondered for a second. No way, Lyon decided hurriedly. He didn't want his fun to be ruined and turned into just sitting with the kid awkwardly, if the kid wanted to that is.

With that, Lyon headed outside, leaving Ur and Gray inside the small house.

Ur smiled as she finished setting up their beds. This should work. This way she could go to bed but also be able to make sure Gray was okay, and Lyon too, of course.

Still smiling, the ice Mage walked out of the cozy looking new bedroom area and went to the living room.

Gray sat on the sofa in silence. In a way he was glad that Lyon had finally left him alone, but while the other seemed to get awkward, Gray had actually felt less lonely or something while the other boy had been sitting beside him in silence. It wasn't giving him as much pressure to answer questions or speak, but he hadn't been quite as alone. Perhaps Ur's student wasn't all annoying and weird.

Suddenly Gray heard someone approaching from behind him. This time, he decided to glance back instead of keeping his eyes glued to the window or hidden as much, despite them still being red from crying earlier.

His gaze met with the smiling ice Mage. She was smiling sort of kindly but also sorta sadly. Gray just narrowed his eyes, his gaze almost turning to a glare. This lady had been so insistent on breakfast and anything she wanted him to do, she seemed as stubborn as he felt like being...and something about her kind yet sad looking smile made his stubbornness weaken.

"You should come outside and get some fresh air. It's a nice day out." Ur told him.

Gray turned his head away from the ice Mage. What was the point going outside when his dad or mom or friends weren't there to play with him?

"Come on Gray." Ur said, her voice getting slightly stern sounding.

"No." Gray protested.

"Very well...but you don't strike me as a boy who spends all his time sitting around watching tv lacrimas all day. But I suppose you could use it if you want. Might be less boring than sitting there staring out the window." Ur said.

Gray glanced at her, she had that strange determined smile again.

"Of course I don't watch tv all day!" Gray declared.

"I just said I didn't think you would. Which just made me confused." Ur explained.

Gray's eyes narrowed in confusion. Ur smiled.

"I never thought you seemed like someone to sit around watching tv. Yet you keep turning us down to going outside." Ur explained smiling.

Why is she smiling like that? Gray wondered.

"It's a nice day out, and you haven't explored at all yet. Are you not an adventurous person? Because I thought you looked like the explorer type." Ur asked him, realizing exactly how she might be able to get the boy to get up and start moving forward.

Gray stared at her, his mouth open slightly.

He briefly recalled all the fun adventures he had loved that he and his dad and his mom and friends had done. How could this lady accuse him of not liking that stuff and being someone who sits around all day, and yet tell him she thought he was someone who liked adventures? How could she think both?

"Of course I liked adventures!" Gray argued.

"Liked?" Ur asked concerned.

"There's...there's just no one..." Gray started, tears threatening to fall. "There's no one fun to do anything with!" Gray shouted, finding it easier to avoid crying when he shouted back at the strange lady.

"Now, Gray, you can't accuse Lyon or I of being boring or no fun if you've never put any effort into playing with us. Get up. I'm going to prove to you that I'm not boring." Ur said looking extremely determined.

Gray stared at her, his eyes wide. What was she trying to do? He said there was no one fun to do anything with because everyone was gone... But now she was turning it around as if he called her and her weird student boring! And her determination and stubbornness made it hard to know how he should react. What was she trying to do?

"I didn't call you boring! There's just no one left-" Gray started defensively and still feeling like crying.

"I'm glad you don't think I'm boring, why don't we go outside and we'll do something fun?" Ur interrupted her smile making Gray more and more suspicious than ever.

"Why won't you just leave me alone!" Gray shouted.

"You want me to wait outside for you while you get your coat on?" Ur asked interrupting again, "Sure. I'll go get it for you." Ur replied turning to get the coat.

"Ugh! You never listen to anything I say!" Gray called in frustration.

Ur smiled as she took the white and orange winter coat that she had found when she pulled Gray out of the rubble that she had washed for him. It seemed like he had gotten ahold of it but hadn't been wearing it when they found him and she assumed it was his. She also reached for the boots she had also washed that Gray had been wearing when they found him.

Ur took the small coat and the winter boots and walked back into the living room.

"Okay, here you go, Gray." Ur said tossing the coat and boots to the boy.

Gray just stared at her. He looked sad frustrated and confused. His fear was still clearly there, but she had a feeling she had figured out a good way to mess with the boy that might be able to help get him to get up and start moving forward. So far it was working.

"I said I didn't wanna go!" Gray protested.

Ur glanced at him, still determined but slightly disappointed looking.

"But you were going to come outside with me." Ur said.

"No I wasn't!" Gray shouted, "I never said that!"

"But you said you liked exploring and adventures." Ur pointed out.

"I did but-" Gray started.

"Get your stuff on, I'll meet you outside." Ur said turning towards the door.

Gray remembered times where he played outside with his dad who had told Gray's mom that as he and his dad left outside to play. Instead of crying he jumped straight for anger.

"No you won't! Because I'm not coming!" Gray shouted to Ur.

"Sure you are. You love playing outside." Ur started, then added hoping her guess was right, "you love playing in the snow."

Gray's jaw dropped and he stared at her. Narrowing his eyes he crossed his arms and turned his head away from the ice Mage,

"I'm _not_ coming! Don't wait for me because I'm _never_ coming! I don't want to play with you weird people!" He shouted stubbornly, but he glanced back and Ur was just about to walk outside. "I'm not coming!" Gray shouted.

Ur turned to the boy and smiled, "I'll see you outside. No need to rush. I'll wait for you. See you soon Gray."

And with that she shut the front door, hoping that it would work and the boy would come out eventually, however long it would take him.

Gray stared at the snow stuff and slumped onto the sofa. I win. He thought. But as he glanced around the house and then back at the window...what was the point? Either way he knew he wouldn't have fun, but maybe being miserable outside would be better than being miserable in here. Why couldn't I win with her? He thought in frustration, as he climbed down from the sofa and started forcing his boots on. There wasn't much point in either option. But he wasn't a lazy person. He had always been very rambunctious and hyper and fun and playful. Yet...the lady hinted about him being that but made it clear she didn't think he was like that. This lady made no sense!

Gray yanked on his other boot, and reached for the coat. Why's she trying to control me anyway? Why does she even care what i do? He thought as he pulled on his winter coat, not bothering to zip it up.

Gray shook his head as he walked towards the door, opened it, and stepped outside.

Gray walked through the deep snow. It was still Isvan, but it was colder and there was more snow up here than back down in his village... Gray shook his head, he was getting really sick of crying. The boy continued through the snow, despite the extreme cold, the sunshine was almost warm. But not quite. After a few minutes he noticed boot marks in the snow. Gray assumed it was probably the weird old ice lady. Habitually he started stepping into each footprint walking along them following them the same way he always did with his parents when they were outside. Until he spotted the weird ice magic lady. She didn't seem to have noticed him yet. He saw some movements from down a ledge she seemed to be looking off. The ice mages hands went into different positions from a hand on a fist and moved to both hands being held to the sides of her as if she were going to do a cartwheel or something.

Gray's eyes widened as soon as the action was performed a huge rounder shield of ice appeared out of nowhere, right in front of Ur. It looked pretty neat. Had he been feeling more like himself he'd probably get excited at seeing this magic up so close, but he didn't really feel like himself anymore. He didn't know what or who he felt like. He'd lost part of himself with his family, friends and village, and he doubted he could ever figure out how to get it back. It was replaced by this awful painful sadness and deep anger that were slowly becoming the only things he could focus on. He had to beat Deliora. Maybe that could help him in someway.

"Gray?" Ur said, smiling down at him after she turned around. "It's nice to see you. I didn't know you'd be that fast at coming out," she said smiling brightly.

Gray was lost in thought, at that point. He needed to destroy Deliora for what it had done to his family friends and village and himself. Maybe after that he would somehow find the missing pieces of himself again, or maybe he wouldn't. But he had to avenge his mom and dad, and maybe the ice Mage would be able to help him after all. If she would teach him magic like she was teaching Lyon, than maybe he could get strong enough to avenge his family, and prevent the demon from ever harming anyone else again.

"Let's go for a walk." Ur suggested.

When Gray didn't answer right away, Ur stepped forward, worried that the boy may be having another flashback like he did one of the times he had woken up in the night thinking he was back at the crumbling village.

"Gray, are you okay?" Ur asked worriedly as she stepped closer to the boy.

Gray's hands clenched into tight fists, and he glanced up at the ice Mage.

"Teach me magic!" He said suddenly.

Ur blinked, she hadn't expected that.

The boy seemed to take a shaky breath as he decided what to say next.

"I wanna learn magic like you're teaching Lyon. Then I can use it to beat Deliora!" Gray explained. "Please..." He added quietly, "please teach me magic..."

Ur stared at the boy, thinking it over. She didn't like his reasons...but maybe teaching him would help her find a way to get rid of the boy's darkness?

She'd seen enough to know that the boys bitterness was not his true self. He had his moments where he seemed like a kind but sad little boy. She wished Lyon could see it too.

But the only way she could for sure have Lyon understand was if she could help this boy get rid of his darkness...then he could possibly be who or at least closer to the person he was before the tragedy had turned him so angry and bitter.

Ur looked into the sad but determined eyes of the dark haired boy.

"My training methods can be tough." Ur told him.

"I don't care!" Gray exclaimed determinedly, "I've got to beat Deliora!" He added, clenching his fists tighter.

"If you want to learn ice magic," Ur started watching he boy as he nodded still looking up at her. "It won't be easy, and it takes lots of practice and patience. But if you want to try, I will teach you." Ur finished.

And I'll help you escape the darkness that Deliora's attack has created inside you. Ur added silently.

Gray's eyes widened a bit, and he seemed to almost, if not slightly, smile. It wasn't much, and she wasn't sure if it had even been there, but either way it was close, and one step closer to saving him from his darkness.

Gray and Ur continued to walk though the snow for awhile, mostly silently. Ur wondered if she could get the boy distracted from his pain by trying to get him to play or something. But she decided against it, since he had already been so stubborn just to get out here. She decided she'd need to help him slowly.

"Look," Ur pointed, "Lyon's over there. I bet he's watching the animals again."

Ur looked to see if she got any reaction from the boy. Gray had followed her finger and glanced at Lyon for a moment and then looked away. Ur smiled slightly. She was sure the boy had listened to her words.

Ur spent a good few hours walking in mostly silence with the boy. Gray hadn't asked or attempted to go back to the house so she assumed he was okay. She showed him around the area for awhile, but she knew she'd have to go inside soon to get dinner ready for the three.

Ur smiled at the boy, wondering what tomorrow would be like. Sure, the boy seemed extremely determined when he asked her to make him her student, but with her tough teaching methods? She could only imagine how he'd react and wonder if he'd be able to handle her tough teaching methods. But he had a lot of determination now. At least learning ice make could give him a distraction from everything, despite his reasons for wanting to learn.

Ur smiled and stopped as they were about to pass the house.

"Gray," she said gently,

The boy stopped and looked up at the ice Mage.

"I'm going to go inside and make dinner. You can play outside or explore some more if you want. You can come in if you want to as well." Ur told him.

Gray's eyes turned to the ground, staring at the snow or his boots as he thought.

It had been nice to have some company, but Gray wasn't sure he felt like going in and laying around again right now, he didn't want Lyon to get some kind of idea that he was a lazy person who sat around watching tv all day or something. Whatever it was the ice Mage lady had accused him of earlier.

Gray just shrugged and glanced around him, actually paying more attention to his surroundings now, after hours of mostly just moving and thinking and looking at stuff only when Ur had pointed something out.

Ur smiled slightly and ruffled the boys hair, earning a slight glare in return. Ur's smiled wavered slightly.

She could tell there was something more to the boy's expression than what it seemed.

Your parent's or someone used to do that to you, didn't they?

She didn't speak the question fearing it could make the boy cry, but by the look the boy was giving her she had a feeling he was already close to doing that.

She felt slightly guilty that the action had upset him, but she knew she'd probably do it again. Despite only knowing the boy for a day and a bunch of hours, she found she was already getting really good at understanding how the boy was acting and the ways he was trying to cope with everything. She felt she needed to help him, not just to get his darkness away, but because she really cared about the kid, she had a feeling that was only going to grow as she'd be getting to know him.

Gray was now sort of awkwardly turned away from her. Ur figured he probably needed some time alone now.

"See you soon, Gray." Ur said gently with a smile.

Gray seemed to nod, still facing away from her. Ur felt a prick of worry arise. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Come in whenever you're ready. I'll call you and Lyon when dinner's ready."

And with that, Ur went into the house.


	3. Lyon's Repudiation

**Okay, third chapter is ready for posting.**

 **The title this time, assuming the Internet didn't give me the wrong meaning of Repudiation, is about how Lyon didn't like the idea of Ur taking Gray in and making him her second student.** **I would've used the word rejection or something like that, but I'm going to need it for later chapters. If the title isn't what the dictionary thing said, feel free to correct me. Thought it would be good to find some new words to use.**

 **Thanks, Poketail, Hiraethe, JaneGriffin, Fwgaltx, JcL107, and Manguepassion for following this story.**

 **Thanks Hiraethe for favoriting. So happy you like it so far!**

 **Thanks to everyone for their reviews and to everyone who's read this.**

 **i hope you all like chapter 3.**

 **Have a nice day!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Ur, Gray, or Lyon.**

When Ur called the boys in for dinner, Ur had expected to possibly have to go out to get Gray. But instead both boys seemed to come in at the same time. Ur felt a spark of hope rise inside her.

Had they played or talked or anything?

She supposed she'd have to ask them over dinner.

Ur smiled as the two boys sat down and joined her at the table.

"Looks delicious, thank you master Ur!" Lyon said, a bright smile on his face.

Lyon seemed to glance slightly at the other boy. This was weird with him here. Plus he was sure the boy had been upset out there but completely ignored him when he had tried to ask when they were coming in.

"Did you two do anything fun while I was making dinner?" Ur asked.

"No." Gray muttered quietly.

"Yeah, I was practicing and I think my ice make ape is nearly perfected!" Lyon announced happily, trying not to roll his eyes at the other boys cold response to Ur's question.

"That's great Lyon." Ur said smiling at her happy little student.

Ur glanced at Gray, who was at least eating up the food she'd given him more willingly than before.

Had it been because she'd agreed to teaching him ice make? She hoped that she could convince him that his reasons for wanting to learn weren't something she thought he should get himself into. Defeating Deliora... As strong as ice make magic can be, this was an Etherious Demon of the book of Zeref, and Gray wanted to use the magic to beat it, she didn't like the revenge stuff he held onto so strongly. He had his darkness, but he was still just a lost heartbroken child who needed to move forward and feel loved again. Not go running out to destroy a demon for vengeance. Ur was certain that the path he was trying to take wouldn't help him very much, it would more likely get him killed. But she knew she could find a way to help him, she was going to help him move forward properly.

After the two boys seemed to be done eating, Ur stood up and started clearing the table.

"You two go get ready for bed, you have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and you both need to get enough sleep." Ur said.

Gray nodded and silently slipped out of the room.

When Ur finished clearing the table she went to her room to get ready for bed, as she heard footsteps approaching, she turned to see Lyon, a troubled expression clear on his face.

"What's wrong Lyon?" Ur asked as she closed the door behind the two of them for some privacy.

Lyon seemed to hesitate but started to speak.

"What was that about?" He asked his teacher.

"What was what about Lyon?" Ur asked concerned.

"You said we both had work to do tomorrow. But that kid doesn't do anything but sulk." Lyon said.

"He's going to be doing the same kind of work that we'll all be doing tomorrow." Ur explained.

Lyon's eyes widened. If he'd seemed upset earlier now he seemed worse. Something like hurt reflected in the nine-year-old's eyes.

"It's bad enough that you took that punk in, but now you're teaching him magic too?"! Lyon demanded.

"He told me he wanted to learn. Is that a problem?" Ur asked trying to figure out why Lyon was so bothered by this.

"You don't need him! You already have me to replace your daughter!" Lyon exclaimed.

Ur froze, shocked at Lyon's words. Lyon startled and had an equally shocked expression as his teacher slapped him in the face. The slap itself didn't really hurt, but Lyon stared up at his teacher in confusion, trying to figure out what he had done wrong.

Ur knelt in front of Lyon, her expression more gentle again.

"Lyon," Ur said firmly, "let's get something straight; I've never once thought of you as a replacement for my daughter. You are who _you_ are, you're my adorable student." Ur said leaning closer to the boy.

After getting ready for bed, Gray went to go see what everyone else was doing, but he didn't see them anywhere. But as he passed a room with its door closed he knew, but what he heard startled him.

"It's bad enough that you took that punk in, but now you're teaching him magic too?"! Lyon exclaimed.

Gray winced, that stung, and he barely even knew Lyon.

"He told me he wanted to learn. Is that a problem?" Ur asked trying to figure out why Lyon was so bothered by this.

"You don't need him! You already have me to replace your daughter!" Lyon exclaimed.

Ur had a daughter? Gray wondered. What happened to her? Gray thought.

There was a moment of silence, and then a slap sound. A slight silence again, and then he heard Ur speaking in a calmer and softer voice, but still very firm.

"Lyon," Ur said firmly. "let's get something straight; I've never once thought of you as a replacement for my daughter. You are who _you_ are, you're my adorable student." Ur said leaning closer to the boy.

Gray quickly returned to the sofa and lay down. He knew he shouldn't have heard any of that. It wasn't his business.

Why did he have to get curious and wonder where they'd gone?

Gray shoved his head into the pillow in frustration. Things were really bad. Everything he knew was gone, and he was with strangers and they-or at least Lyon didn't want him here. How was he supposed to do anything with them when he knew he wasn't even wanted here?

Why does what Lyon says or think even bug me? Gray thought, still hurt by Lyon's words,

I barely even know him.

But even if he didn't know these people the other boy's words still hurt. Everything hurt. He wished it would stop.

Maybe things would be better someday... But he didn't think it could get better with being how bad it was now and slowly getting worse.

Gray heard Lyon and Ur approaching and he shoved himself more tightly into the pillow.

He heard Lyon pass by him, and he waited for Ur to as well.

"Gray?" Ur said. "Come on."

Gray muttered "where" but the pillow was against his face too much to hear it right, luckily Ur was good at guessing.

"You're not going to sleep on the sofa. I've made up some beds." Ur told him, but still Gray didn't seem to make any effort to get up.

Ur looked down at her new student. He was quite stubborn. She just needed to turn his stubbornness into him not giving up and staying down instead of him using it to stay down.

"Get up Gray." Ur said firmly.

Gray moved only slightly, but remained laying down. He didn't want Ur to be able to see his hurt expression. He didn't want her to make any guesses and find out he'd accidentally overheard their conversation.

"Get up." Ur said, more friendly than firm this time.

Gray wouldn't move. Ur reached for his shoulder gently to pull him up to get a look at his face, although the boy got up and followed willingly, he kept his face downcast.

Ur led him into the other room watching him carefully seeing that he was upset.

"Okay," Ur said as they went into the room.

Lyon was already standing by the bed wondering which spot was his.

"Right there Lyon." Ur said as she pointed to the side of bigger mattress that had an easy exit area.

Lyon nodded and got himself into the big bed. Ur led Gray to the other side of the bigger mattress that had a small mattress beside it pushed against it making it seem like one extra big bed, and helped him into the spot on the big mattress next to Lyon.

Lyon felt irritated as Gray climbed into the bed beside him, but he tried to ignore it because it was Ur's choices of who slept where, and they were some of the luckiest people ever to be living with the strongest ice wizard in the world!

Ur then lay down on the mattress that was pushed against the other bed, beside Gray, who was hiding his face in the pillow again.

Ur sighed quietly, she figured he still felt uncomfortable with them, but she knew things would get better soon. She just hoped he could handle her training tomorrow.

"Goodnight Master Ur!" Lyon said.

Lyon, noticing Gray's strange awkward and not to mention obvious way of hiding his face, just rolled his eyes and tried to push away the annoyance he had from the other boy and figured Ur would be happy if he said goodnight to Gray too, even if the punk didn't appreciate it.

"Goodnight Master Ur! Goodnight Gray..." Lyon said.

"Goodnight boys," Ur said smiling. "get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day." She said as she got comfortable.

"Right..." Lyon said quietly, he had a bad feeling it was going to be way too different from usual training now that Gray was with them.

Plus with Gray here only just starting training, Lyon knew they'd probably have to go back to beginner stuff that he had already learned and mastered.

Oh well... Lyon thought. I suppose it won't be too bad I guess. I'm still going to be Ur's best student and I'll still get stronger than her someday.

With that, Lyon closed his eyes, focussing on all the great things that he would accomplish someday.

Ur waited an hour or so, and then she slowly sat up and glanced at the boys. Ur smiled, seemed Lyon had fallen to sleep. Ur glanced at Gray, trying to figure out if he was awake or asleep.

He was laying there pretty still despite his shaky breathing. In fact, he was laying there too still to be asleep. He was laying there so still and stiff that Ur was confident that the boy was still awake.

"Gray," Ur whispered.

The boy seemed to tense up a little more than he had been, but otherwise made no response.

Ur placed a hand on the boys back.

"Are you okay?" Ur asked worriedly.

The boy seemed to start shaking a bit. Ur sat up a bit and put both hands on his shoulders.

"Gray." Ur said quietly. "Can you look here over here?" She asked worriedly.

Gray didn't move. Ur attempted to pull him up, though it was difficult with how stiffly he was laying there.

"Gray..." She whispered sadly as she felt wet tears hit her hand.

Gray tried to push her off. Ur loosened her grip, but tried to get him to sit up. She hated seeing him so sad and broken. She wanted to help him, she understood how painful it was to lose someone you love but she knew it wasn't something that could be fixed easily. Especially with how torn apart and scared this boy was.

"Come here." Ur whispered. "Why are you crying?" She asked him.

Gray curled up tightly, he hated all of this. He didn't want her to bother him. He knew she was trying to help, but he didn't believe anything could make him feel better. Everyone was gone and he was all alone. Except that he was with Ur and Lyon...but Lyon didn't even want him here.

So who knows what Ur thought about it.

She was probably really frustrated with all the boy's pathetic crying and moping around.

Gray sobbed silently.

Ur's heart ached as she watched the boy continue to defy and reject her, as she tried to comfort the boy. But considering how he'd allowed her to comfort him somewhat the first night when he was half awake half asleep and continually going into panics and flashbacks he had been tired-or scared enough that night that he hadn't pushed her off. Perhaps she'd have better luck when the boy got more tired?

Gray's crying accidentally got slightly loud and he jammed his face as hard as he could into the pillow.

Ur moved closer to Gray's spot, laying down beside him. After a moment she realized the boy wasn't going to try to pull away probably because Lyon was laying on the other side of the bed and he didn't want to wake him.

Ur gently placed her hand on the boy's back, moving it in circle motions in attempt to calm the boy down.

"You're safe here." She whispered, remembering how panicked the boy had been last night.

His first night with her hadn't gone very well. She was actually very surprised that Gray hadn't accidentally woken Lyon up that night with his panicked cries when he woke up from his nightmares.

Gray seemed to shudder a bit, still really tensed up.

Ur put her hand on his head, gently pushing his hair away from his face.

Eventually Gray seemed less stiff and his breathing less shaky.

Ur was starting to think the boy was finally starting to fall to sleep. Even though crying himself to sleep didn't sound like a good way to get to sleep.

"You shouldn't be so stubborn with letting people help you." Ur whispered with a sad smile.

She hoped overtime she'd be able to get to know Gray in more than just his angry bitter side and this sad broken side. She knew she'd gotten a bit further to getting to know him when she discovered a good way to get him to stop laying around or to eat or drink something, but she wanted him to learn to be happy again.

Ur knew from experience that it was extremely hard, but not an impossible thing to do. She just needed to help the little guy through it all.

She hoped training wouldn't be too difficult for him tomorrow, because she had a feeling it would give her more chances to be able to help him escape his darkness.

Awhile later Gray started to stir making soft, sad-sounding whimpering noises.

Ur sat up a bit, and helped him move a little into a more comfortable position, since his face was still sort of shoved into the pillow making it difficult to breath.

Gray slightly opened his eyes, but it was super dark and he was still half asleep.

"...mom...?" Gray whimpered quietly, his voice sounding scared.

"Go back to sleep Gray," Ur whispered sadly.

"Huh..." Gray moaned sounding scared and as if he was waking up more.

Ur couldn't stand the thought of him waking up all the way and remembering where he was. Last night that had happened only he'd waken up in more of a panic crying out for his parents, and Ur didn't want his mind to start going into any flashbacks.

Gray started trying to push himself up to look around and wake up more Ur reached out to stop him, and pulled the boy into a hug.

Gray didn't quite stiffen or tense but he didn't return the hug either. Ur hugged the boy tightly, hoping he would fall back to sleep before he remembered or thought of everything again.

Something in Gray's mind seemed to register and the boy started trembling.

Ur winced and pulled him closer.

"...Ur...?" Gray whispered, his voice fragile and pained sounding.

Ur hugged him tightly putting one hand on his head.

Gray didn't try to resist or push her off, but he didn't seem too accepting either. But after a moment he just began to sob.

Ur knew there was little she could say that could make him feel better. But the sorrow part despite how heartbreaking it was to watch, was the part of Gray's situation that she understood and could relate to. She understood the pain of losing someone you love.

But the times Gray was dealing with the trauma and flashbacks were harder for her to know what to do to help him. He'd woken up screaming and crying out last time. Each time she usually ended up hugging him like this.

Two nights now had he been unable to sleep.

Ur hoped she could find a way to help him better. He wouldn't be able to function too well if he kept waking up this way every night.

She'd tried moving the beds so she was able to be with him when these things happened, which seemed like it was still a good option. But she wished she could make his nightmares stop. Only she didn't know of any way to do that.

"Gray?" Ur whispered.

Gray pulled away slightly and looked up at her, but quickly turned his head to stare at the floor, an almost guilty expression on his face.

"Hey, look here." Ur whispered to the boy.

It made her want to cry just seeing how sad and broken the boy looked.

Gray looked up at her slightly.

Ur smiled half heartedly, as she tried to wipe the boy's tears away, but Gray pushed her hand away and did it himself.

Ur tried to think of why Gray seemed to look guilty, but she couldn't think of anything he'd done. Yet the expression he gave looked sad and guilty possibly even a bit ashamed or embarrassed kind of look. But she had no idea what he could possibly be guilty for.

She didn't know how, but somehow she felt almost if she could understand him so well despite only knowing him one day and a evening and a night.

It was like the boy was silently apologizing to her for something. Was it because she was staying up with him? Was it because he was upset about the fights he and Lyon had gotten into? Or was he embarrassed about crying all over her?

"I...I thought it'd been a dream..." Gray whispered his voice cracking slightly.

What had he thought been a dream? Deliora and his parents? Living here? No...as much as she knew those could have truth to them, she had a feeling it was something else. Something that could possibly bring guilt into this. Something that could give an explanation as to why the boy seemed to have guilt and a sorry expression all over his tear-streaked face.

"...why...?" Gray asked quietly.

"Why what?" Ur answered quietly.

Gray rubbed tears from his eyes and yawned.

"W-why...?" Gray tried again but cried harder. "Why...are you doing..." The boy stammered but couldn't seem to come up with a complete answer.

Ur opened her mouth to speak feeling like the boy was maybe talking about why she was up late or something like that. Or why she was staying up with him. But before she could say anything, the exhausted boy spoke again.

"What time is it?" He asked sounding more monotone or numb, perhaps.

Ur smiled half heartedly.

"Way past your bedtime." Ur replied. "You think you can get back to sleep?" Ur asked him.

Gray tensed and pulled away from Ur and lay down and started wiping away his tears.

Ur lay down back in her spot, trying to figure out what Gray had been trying to tell her.

 _"I...I thought it'd been a dream..."_

 _"...why...?"_

 _"W-why...are you doing..."_

 _"What time is it?"_

Ur went over all the things Gray had tried to say to her, trying to figure out what he meant. He seemed to be wondering why she'd stayed up with him. He looked as if he wanted to say sorry possibly. He had acknowledge her staying up trying to help him. But was that really enough to make him feel guilty about it?

But Ur hadn't complained or said anything that could make this seem like a bad thing. She wasn't even bothered by the staying up part. She was only bothered that Gray was hurting so much.

Suddenly Ur realized something that could possibly make sense. What if Gray had somehow overheard Lyon when he was complaining about Gray staying here and being the reason Ur had been tired that morning?

Ur felt worry rise inside her. She really hoped Gray hadn't heard the things Lyon had said to her about him. She understood Lyon had been upset, but she also realized how hurtful and damaging some of the things her older pupil had said could be if Gray had heard their conversation.

But at least she was pretty sure she had it figured out now.

Gray had remembered Ur being woken up by his cries the first night she'd taken him in, and now he was realizing it hadn't been a dream because she was right here doing it again.

He felt guilty because he'd woken her up and now he believed that he'd done it again. That's why he was worried about the time.

Ur smiled sadly, and turned to see how Gray was doing. Gray seemed to be trying to fall to sleep now, but Ur noticed the boy kept sort of moving and looking around a bit before laying back down. He seemed to be trying to decide something.

"What is it Gray?" Ur asked him worriedly. "You okay?" She asked sitting up beside him.

Gray glanced down at his fidgeting hands, with that guilty look again.

"What is it?" Ur asked.

"I...I'm thirsty..." Gray whispered, a hint of guilt, pain, and fear in his voice.

Ur sat up a bit on the bed sliding towards the end.

Gray opened his mouth to protest, but Ur just smiled at him and ruffled his hair.

Oops... She thought, remembering it had reminded the boy of someone else before. She knew she was going to make that mistake again.

"Ur...I'm not...I'm not that thirsty..." Gray stammered.

"It's okay," Ur said smiling kindly, remembering how Gray's voice had sounded when he was upset. "I'm thirsty too. Do you want to come or wait here? If you'd rather stay you can make sure Lyon doesn't roll over and hog the bed." Ur said jokingly giving Gray a way out if he was feeling too scared to get up.

She knew how much he liked to keep his strange tough act when he was his more usual snarky self she'd met. Which she found was a strange but funny trait to see in someone so young.

Gray seemed to stare at his hands hesitantly.

Ur smiled at the boy gently.

"I'll be right back." She told him.

As Ur started to leave, Gray suddenly called to her to wait. Ur stopped and turned as she saw the boy getting up off the bed and hurriedly scampered over to her.

"Okay." Ur said, as she led him through the house and into the kitchen to where she had the water.

Ur reached two cups out of the cabinet and started filling them up with cold water.

Gray watched her tiredly. He had no idea why the lady was doing so much for him. He felt guilty that he'd woken her up and possibly twice now, and his being there made Ur's student Lyon not happy. Gray wished things weren't as bad as they were.

It's not liked he'd chosen to end up here. He'd go back to his parents in a heartbeat if he only could.

Ur turned and passed him a glass of ice-cold water, smiling down at him.

Although the boy simply took the glass of water and started to drink it, Ur didn't worry about any kind of thank you, like Lyon had been upset about. She'd be happy if the boy would say thank you, but she didn't really need it. She could already see it in Gray's eyes that he was thankful.

Although she did wonder how much of it Gray himself could notice. He didn't seem to notice much of anything about himself other than his pain.

Ur took a sip from her glass of water, and when they were both done getting their passed midnight drink, Gray passed Ur the empty glass and Ur put them into the sink and led the boy back to the beds.

Ur helped Gray get back into bed and she pulled the blanket over him. She lay down in her spot too, but waited awhile before going to sleep, just in case Gray had another nightmare or flashback or if he needed her in any way.

But luckily for the two of them, the rest of the night had been much less eventful, and the two fell to sleep hopefully not so late that they'd be too tired for Gray's first day of training in the morning. Sometimes Ur wondered how in the world Lyon managed to sleep through it all. Especially the first night with all the noise Gray had made crying out for his mom and dad. But at least that meant that one of them wouldn't be tired when morning came and the ice magic training begun.


	4. The Training Begins

**Sorry for the slow updates, things are rough here.**

 **Thanks so much for all the reviews, follows, favorites, etc, and thanks so much for reading! Hope this worked out okay, things have been rough and I'm not sure how many times I kept proofreading this, hopefully I got it okay.**

 **Here's Gray's first day of training with Ur and Lyon.**

 **Anyway, have a nice day! Thanks so much for reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

Lyon awoke from his peaceful sleep, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he yawned.

He turned to see if Gray was up, but was surprised to see both the younger boy and his teacher Ur were still asleep.

Lyon tried to push away his irritation as he stared at the two who were laying there beside each other still sleeping. Never since he'd come to live with Ur had she gone and slept with _him_. Sure, he supposed Ur had said the younger boy had been having nightmares, but why was that any reason to give the kid special treatment?

Lyon knew he was probably being a little unfair, but just this whole taking this new kid in situation bothered him.

But Lyon pushed those thoughts away as he climbed out of bed quietly, careful not to wake Ur or Gray.

He was not going to ruin the day with frustration with Ur's new student.

Lyon quietly walked into the bathroom to get ready for his day. He knew Ur would likely be up next, since on Gray's first night here he slept in really late.

When he finished getting changed and his teeth brushed, Lyon walked quietly passed the beds and went into Ur's kitchen.

Lyon smiled, today may not be the same as other days, but today he was going to make Ur breakfast.

...and he supposed that maybe the little punk could have some too. But only after Ur got her share.

"Now what to make..." Lyon muttered as he searched through the cupboards.

Lyon pull out the bread, wondering whether to make toast or attempt something better. But he had only watched Ur make pancakes or waffles or French toast a few times and he didn't want to risk burning anything. Because if he burnt it he couldn't give it to Ur. And throwing it out would waste Ur's food, and he was sure she wouldn't approve of him letting Gray eat the burnt stuff, which he himself didn't think was a good idea.

Besides, he wasn't going to burn any of it.

Lyon decided on the toast option. It was easy and simple but maybe he could make lots with different things on it so that they could choose what they wanted.

Lyon hurriedly got the bread and started making as much toast as he thought would be good. While it was toasting he grabbed some fruit out of the fruit bowl and set the table.

Lyon made sure to check often if the toast was cooking right.

Once in awhile he thought he heard sounds from the other room, and he hurried a bit so that hopefully breakfast would be ready right as soon as Ur got up.

It had to go perfectly.

Ur opened her eyes and sat up slowly in bed. She glanced to her side at where Gray and Lyon had been sleeping.

Gray lay at her side still fast asleep, but Lyon was nowhere in sight.

Ur smiled and gently placed a hand on Gray's small shoulder.

"Gray. It's morning, time to get up. It's your first day of training." Ur said.

"...You know I hate school..." Gray muttered in his sleep as he rolled over in bed.

Ur couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Gray, you asked me specifically to teach you magic. You won't be going to any school but if you don't like learning you shouldn't have asked me to teach you." Ur replied quietly, still snickering.

Gray remained silent, still fast asleep.

"Gray...?" Ur repeated. "Time to get up."

The black-haired boy started to stir.

Ur got up out of bed and looked back at Gray.

"Morning Gray," she greeted as the boy slowly sat up and opened his eyes.

For a moment Ur almost thought the boy was going to return her smile, but he didn't. In fact he seemed to scowl more than anything.

"Let's go get some breakfast." Ur said, realizing that she smelled toast.

Gray seemed to hesitate, but then he reluctantly slid out of bed.

Ur smiled and started away into the kitchen. She heard Gray mutter something about it being too cold to get out of bed here.

She knew it was colder up here than it was in his village since they were at the top of a mountain, but she couldnt help but shake her head.

Gray had no idea what he was in for today.

Ur wondered what the boy would do once they got outside to start his first day of training. He was in for a freezing cold surprise.

"Good Morning!" Lyon greeted as he managed to stand facing his teacher just in time as he had finished setting up breakfast.

"Good morning Lyon. I'm sorry if I made you wait-" Ur started, but Lyon shook his head quickly.

"You didn't make me wait, I made you breakfast." Lyon explained proudly.

"Oh, wow. How thoughtful. Thank you Lyon." Ur said as she smiled and ruffled the boy's white hair.

Ur walked further into the kitchen and sat down, surprised at the amount of food that lay out on the table.

"Wow Lyon, you've sure been busy." She complimented, as she reached for some toast.

"Yep. Here, let me get you some." Lyon said reaching for the food Ur was reaching for.

"No, it's okay. Go get some for yourself." Ur told him.

Lyon nodded ignoring the slight disappointment.

"Aren't you hungry Gray?" Ur asked the quiet dark-haired boy.

Gray nodded.

"Well eat up. It's not like I poisoned it." Lyon said, annoyed with the scowl on the younger boy's face.

Gray looked into the older boy's eyes and looked quickly back at the food.

Lyon raised a brow, wondering if the strange look was that Gray really did think he had poisoned the toast?

No way. It must be something else. Lyon figured.

Gray took two pieces of toast and started munching on them slowly, while Ur and Lyon ate at more normal paces.

"So..." Lyon started, glancing at Gray. "You excited for your first day of magic training?" Lyon asked.

Lyon felt his annoyance lessen when he saw Ur smiling at him. He figured it was because he was still trying to get along with Gray even after their little fight and all of Gray's impolite behaviours.

Gray turned to Lyon with just his eyes for a moment, and then returned his gaze to his food. Why is he even talking to me? Gray wondered still slightly hurt from the words the older boy had said only yesterday.

"Are you excited Gray?" Ur asked, hoping he'd answer her and it could slowly make him maybe start listening to Lyon more as well.

Gray shrugged and continued eating breakfast.

"I was super excited my first day." Lyon said dreamily.

Ur laughed at the memory.

"You think you'll be able to handle a day of it?" Lyon asked the younger boy skeptically.

Gray stopped eating.

"Of course I can! I have to! I'm going to beat Deliora!" Gray exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Lyon said slowly. "Course you are." He added sarcastically.

Gray glared.

"I will. You'll see." Gray insisted, something dark and angry in his eyes.

Lyon didn't seem to notice, and just started rambling on about training and when he'd get time for his training.

"You'll have time to work on your stuff too. But we have to get Gray started." Ur explained, eyeing Gray carefully.

"I'll have to show you how strong I'm getting." Lyon told her happily.

"I'd love to see." Ur answered proudly.

Gray slumped lower in his seat, feeling again like he wasn't supposed to be listening or even be here. Lyon didn't want him here and he knew it. But he didn't have a choice. He was stuck here and all he could do was take the weird lady's training and try to become strong enough to avenge his parents and friends. He had to.

"Are you finished eating Gray?" Ur asked, noticing Gray's odd posture.

Gray nodded and pulled his knees and folded his legs against his chest.

Ur nodded and started clearing the table. Lyon quickly got up and helped her.

After they finished cleaning up, Ur looked at the two boys.

"You two ready to head out?" Ur asked her two students.

"Yes master Ur." Lyon replied.

I've been ready all morning. He added silently.

"Yeah..." Gray answered as his anger turned a little into determination.

"Let's go." Ur said as she led the two boys towards the front door.

Gray and Lyon got their snow stuff on and headed outside after they're teacher.

Ur led her student and new student out into the snow, leading them further away from the house at a fast pace.

"Okay." Ur said as she stopped in a clear area that was flatter and easier to run on.

"Are you sure you want to do this Gray? I warned you, training with me can be tough." She asked the boy who was panting. "Do you think you can keep up?"

"Of course! I have to learn magic so I can become stronger than Deliora, and someday, I'm gonna beat it!" Gray replied determinedly.

"Yeah right." Lyon muttered sarcastically.

As Gray spoke, Ur began to get ready for training to start by demonstrating the first step. She swiftly removed her outer clothes until she was in her underwear, which consisted of a green two piece bathing-suit like clothes.

Upon seeing this, Gray broke off from his sentence and completely freaked out.

"What?!" Gray shouted in shock as the ice Mage removed most of her clothes.

"You have to wear as little as possible when training to become one with the cold. It's an effective way to train." Ur explained.

"No way! That's crazy! This has got to be a joke!" Gray exclaimed, and without thinking he turned to the Ur's other student. "Back me up Lyon!"

But as he glanced at the other student his jaw dropped in shock yet again.

"Now you're naked too?" Gray demanded.

"Just hurry up and do it kid. You wanna learn magic don't you?" Lyon taunted in amusement at the younger boy's reaction to his teacher's strange but effective training methods.

Gray scowled at the two of them, still processing that this really wasn't a cruel joke. He felt annoyed at how Lyon kept calling him kid, when the guy himself was around Gray's age.

"Come on, I don't want to have to do all this beginner stuff again either. So hurry up so we can get this over with." Lyon told him impatiently.

At last Gray came to an understanding that this wasn't a joke, and with how Lyon had that mocking sarcastic teasing tone, or whatever it was, Gray felt his stubbornness flare up inside him. No way would he back down now. He had finally got Ur to agree to teach him, and now Lyon was teasing and not believing that he could learn ice magic and that he could someday beat Deliora.

Gray bit his lip, shivering uncomfortably as he pulled off his coat, followed by the rest, until he was standing in the snow shivering like crazy in his boxer-shorts.

This had to be one of the craziest things he'd ever done.

"I've been at this for so long, I-I'm not e-even cold anymore." Lyon said standing straight and proud looking.

Gray, who was more hunched and curled up from the icy winds that were making him even colder, scowled at the other boy who was clearly shivering just as much as he was. Sure he was standing straighter, but that wasn't much of an accomplishment.

"You're shivering j-just as much as I am." Gray informed him quietly.

But Lyon either ignored him or didn't hear him. Gray followed Lyon's bright gaze back to the strange ice magic lady who had made him do this.

"So, now that you're both ready, we're going to run through the snow and get used to the cold as we learn to absorb ether nano. Do you know what that is Gray?" Ur asked him.

"N-no..." Gray muttered coldly still shivering.

"Ether nano is the magic energy that people require in order to be capable of using magic. Once you know how to absorb it, you can learn to harness it and send it back out but in a different form. In this case, ice magic." Ur explained.

Gray nodded slightly in understanding, but it was so cold and he was shivering so hard that he wasn't sure if Ur had seen his nod.

"Alright, you both ready?" Ur asked.

"Y-yeah..." Gray replied still shivering uncontrollably.

"Yup." Lyon answered brightly.

"Then let's go. Follow me, and try to keep up." Ur told them. "We're going to run." Ur added, making sure Gray would know what to do.

How's running around on the top of a snowy mountain in my underwear going to give me magic to beat Deliora? Gray wondered bitterly. But he decided it was best to try not to think about the crazy things he was having to do, and just follow the weird ice magic lady's instructions despite how insane and stupid it sounded.

"Let's go." Ur said as she and Lyon immediately broke into a run.

Gray quickly forced his freezing body to go and followed just behind Ur, off to the side a little away from Lyon.

The three ran through the deep snow.

Ur glanced over her shoulder once to make sure her new student was keeping up. Lyon was doing well, as usual. Gray had dark bags under his eyes, she wasn't sure whether it was from lack of sleep or crying, but otherwise if she looked past the pain filled look she saw determination, even though it seemed to stem from anger and his need for revenge that came from despair. But at least he was managing to keep up. For now anyway.

After a few minutes, Ur led the two boys into deeper snow. Ur continued for a good while until she led them to a stop.

Lyon and Gray stopped just behind their teacher and then lined up awaiting further instruction. Although having done this a hundred times before, Lyon already knew what to expect.

"Alright, now we're going to do some exercises." Ur said.

Lyon immediately got down on his hands and knees and started doing some push-ups in the snow.

Gray stared at him as if he was insane. Feeling Ur watching him, the black-haired boy glanced at the ice magic lady briefly.

She was watching them, her expression watchful and maybe more firm or something. She was definitely waiting to see if he was going to do as she instructed.

"This is stupid." Gray mumbled.

"Pardon Gray?" Ur asked firmly, turning to the boy.

Gray just shook his head and did as he was told, causing the strange ice lady to smile at him just slightly. But Gray gave her a slight scowl in return. Then he leaned down and copied what Lyon was doing.

Ur did not sit out for any of the training. She'd stop for small amounts of time to watch and make sure the boys were doing the exercises correctly, but after she would join in again until they were finished.

After many hours of running, push ups, jumping jacks, and all sorts of exercises, while freezing in the snow without anything on but their underwear, Gray glanced up desperately at the ice Mage.

"Why're we even doing all these stupid exercises? When are we gonna do real magic?" Gray asked, scowling at his teacher.

"I already explained it to you." Ur replied. "You're getting your body adapted to the cold and at the same time you're learning how to absorb the ether-nano." She explained.

Gray scowled and hugged his arms around his freezing body as he shivered.

"More like freezing it to death..." Gray muttered bitterly.

"What, you didn't feel anything with the ether-nano? Maybe you'll have to absorb it through meditation instead. Some people use active exercises and some use meditation stuff. Unless it's all too tough for you." Lyon said, his voice seemed mocking, and like some kind of know-it-all, to Gray.

Why'd this kid act as if he were on some kind of way higher level than Gray when he was only a year older? Who cares how long he'd been training, it didn't give him the right to treat Gray like some kind of five-year-old.

"Alright, this way boys." Ur said, leading them into another run.

Eventually they stopped and she got them to do more exercises. When they'd finished that she would get them to run with her again.

This is so stupid... Gray thought angrily.

The three were running yet again, and Gray was freezing.

He'd never felt so cold and tired in every way possible in his entire life. His eyes still felt tired from the lack of sleep and all the crying. He felt hot tears stinging his eyelids again, and fought back his tears, and pushed himself to run harder.

He felt his small amount of hope rise in him as his mind came up with what he assumed were just stupid childish thoughts that wouldn't matter anymore... But he hoped the faster, and the harder he ran that maybe, somehow, he could outrun the demons, the pain, the anger and hate and the sorrow.

Outrun this strange different person he'd become and just forget all his problems.

He scowled at how ridiculous it sounded. But somehow the idea made him run faster, and perhaps stronger. Maybe it was just that silly hope he had gotten ahold of.

Because what did he have to hope for? Other than becoming strong enough to beat Deliora for all it had taken away from him.

What was he supposed to do after that?

Everything was gone.

So Gray ran harder and faster. Hoping that he could outrun all of his thoughts and his pain. Somehow he'd make it go away. He hoped it would be gone or at least better when he managed to defeat Deliora...if he managed to. As much as he hoped it could make something, anything better, he had no idea how, or if anything could help him. He'd lost everything and beating Deliora wouldn't be able to bring everyone back... He'd lost everything. Even himself. He wasn't really sure of anything anymore, not even about who he was.

It was the loneliest feeling he'd ever felt in his life.

Gray squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he ran, trying to force away all his thoughts by focussing solely on the freezing snow and wind that burned his bare skin. A few tears fell from his closed eyes.

He ran harder and faster, nearly passing Lyon.

He was going to beat Deliora and avenge his family. He may have lost them and most of himself, but he would never give up. He was going to make Deliora pay.

He allowed his angry thoughts to blur away as he ran as fast as he could. He didn't want to think about it all anymore. He would just run, thinking about nothing but getting stronger and watching his footing so he wouldn't fall on any ice.

Slowly, his emotions would fade a bit. Slowly he began to lose himself more and some of the pain and emotions would disappear a bit, but when that happened he couldn't feel anything.

Not angry, not sad, not the excruciating pain he'd felt since his village was destroyed. Just numb. It felt like he was changing... Losing himself and becoming something so lost and broken.

But he knew it wasn't permanent, he knew he'd feel the pain again. And to be honest, he wasn't sure which was worse. Feeling all the pain, or feeling nothing at all... It all scared him. But he held it all in. All he was going to do was keep running, until it was time to go in. But he wasn't going to think of that right now.

Everything was gone and everything was over, but sometimes when the weird ice make lady smiled at him or spoke to him, especially when it was late in the night when he awoke from nightmares, he felt something different ever so slightly. He figure it was that sliver of hope.

He didn't think it made sense, but he didn't really care.

"Isn't this the best?" Lyon asked happily.

Gray considered answering the older boy, but as soon as he glanced at Lyon, the older boy slowed to a stop.

Gray didn't feel ready to stop just yet. This was likely one of the closest things to relief from all his problems he'd been able to find, besides when the Ur lady had tried to comfort him each night when he couldn't sleep.

"Hey! Wait!" Lyon shouted.

"Gray!" Ur called.

Gray glanced back at the two who had stopped, and that's when he hit the ice, and slipped falling to the cold icy ground, landing hard.

"Gray!" Ur called as she ran over to help him.

Ow... Gray thought, his body starting to shiver from the cold again.

"Are you alright?" Lyon and Ur asked as they approached the boy, Lyon slightly behind his teacher.

The question rang in the boy's head for a moment as his mind's images sort of clouded and overwhelmed his eyesight, causing the boy to tremble in fear as well as the cold.

He saw the crumbled village he'd once called home, every bit of it reduced to rubble.

Hey, are you alright?

The words echoed in his head. It had been the first thing Lyon had said to him when they had first found him and pulled him out of the rubble.

But his mind was turning it backwards. Going back into the memories and feelings he'd been feeling then.

Gray let out a shaky sob, as the sounds turned into the screaming and ear-shattering below of Deliora, that only cause Gray to shake and sob harder.

"Gray?" Ur said reassuringly as she knelt trying to get the sobbing boy to look at her in the eyes.

"What's he doing?" Lyon asked quietly, making a face of confusion.

Gray shakily forced himself to glance at Ur, but his mind still shoved the memories back at him, making it hard to focus.

"Gray, you're okay." Ur said quietly.

But Gray wasn't listening. He was too absorbed into the flashback, and even if the flashback had ended, he was clearly still remembering it all.

"Here..." Ur whispered trying to pull the boy out of the snow.

Gray immediately pulled away, his body still shaking from both the cold and the fear. He was still freezing except for the hot tears that stung his eye and cheeks.

Gray tried to pull himself together, he didn't want to be like this. He didn't want to be here. He just wanted his mom and dad. Not here, running around practically naked in the snow with these weird people that he barely even knew.

Lyon watched uncertainly as his teacher tried to help the younger boy. Sensing that maybe Gray needed some privacy without Lyon watching him freak out for whatever reason it was, Lyon glanced at Ur and then turned and distracted himself with some ice-make practice. Just practicing a few different spells. But his thoughts seemed to sneak back to whatever was going on with Gray.

"Come on Gray, get up. You're okay." Ur said reassuringly.

Gray finally managed to gain some control over his crying, as he tried to pull out of it as quickly as he could. He didn't want them to start treating him like some kind of baby for crying just after he fell down.

Gray glanced up at Ur slightly, his expression hard to read, despite the dark circles under his eyes, that had been there pretty much since Deliora's rampage. Or just after that perhaps.

"Would you like to call it a day and go back inside?" Ur asked the boy. "Or we could go in and take a break then continue a little later?" Ur offered.

Gray remained silent, considering which would be better.

"Maybe we should get you inside for a break..." Ur said, thinking her training may be too hard on the poor boy.

Suddenly Gray felt like if he did that, then things with Lyon might get even worse. He wasn't a baby and he had to defeat Deliora.

Gray started to push himself up, and Ur grabbed him and helped him to his feet. Gray shivered uncontrollably, making Ur reach for his arm to lead him back to the house. But Gray pulled away.

"I have to get stronger...than Deliora...so that one day, I can beat it!" He said through shivers, his voice sounding both angry and pained.

After he was pulled into a standing position, Gray shoved Ur off of him again, but accidentally lost his footing on the ice again, and fell down again hard.

"Damn it!" Gray shouted smashing his fist down onto the ice in frustration.

Ur stared down at the hurting little boy. She wanted more then anything to just stop his pain and make him smile or something. Now that she thought of it, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen Gray smile before.

Lyon glanced back when he heard Gray shout, and he shook his head sadly.

"When can I learn how to use magic?" Gray asked desperately as Ur tried to help him up again.

"Soon, if this isn't too much for you." Ur replied worriedly.

Gray almost slipped again but managed to stop himself, and glared slightly at Ur when she reached to try to stop him from falling again.

"I'm gonna do it." Gray said determinedly.


	5. A Step Towards Friendship

**Thanks so much for all the follows, favorites, reviews, etc. Thanks you so much for reading! Hope you all have a great day! Sorry once again for the slow updates. Writing has slowly started to speed up a bit now, hopefully it continues to do so.**

 **have a great day and thanks so much for reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

Gray's first day of magic training had both gone well and terribly. He'd found it to be a bit of a good, if not an uncomfortable and difficult distraction from his problems, even if it didn't lessen any of his pain.

In fact, if anything, the icy windburn just made him hurt physically as well as his usual emotional pain he was always in. Pretty much everything was a mess.

But by the time they'd finally finished the first day of training, Gray was even more exhausted than he had been when he'd gotten up that morning, and the first thing he did when they finished was walk inside heading straight for the bed, and collapsed onto it.

Ur hadn't been kidding when she said her supposed _training_ was tough.

She certainly hadn't warned him about the stripping and running around in the snow like some kind of crazy person.

 _Crazy old witch._ Gray thought bitterly.

He let out a big sigh and tried to ignore his aching muscles and the other pain he was always dealing with now that he was alone.

"Hey," Said a voice from behind him.

Gray tried to ignore the other boy. Why should he answer the guy when he didn't even want Gray here?

Gray sighed.

"What do you want?" He muttered, too tired to be snappy.

"Well...you never did end up playing this board game with anyone. I was wondering if you wanted to now?" Lyon asked.

"No." Gray answered quickly.

Lyon stayed quiet for a long moment wondering what to do.

"Fine then. Fair enough." Lyon replied trying to contain his annoyance and impatience...and perhaps he slightly wanted to play the game himself, or do something and maybe see this better side that the little brat apparently had. Or at least in Ur's mind or experience.

Lyon shrugged. He considered asking how the boy enjoyed training with Ur, the best and strongest Mage in all of Isvan, or at least that's how Lyon thought of her. But he realized that was probably not the best idea considering how many times the younger boy had called it stupid that day, and then there was also the little tantrum/freak out/panic attack Lyon had witnessed as Ur tried to help the younger boy out of the panic, that was about who knows what. Though he supposed Gray knew and he was sure Ur; as amazing as she is, had probably figured it out.

"What would you like to do then?" Lyon asked.

"N-nothing." Gray half murmured.

Lyon sighed softly and stepped closer to the younger boy who lay on his chest turned away from Lyon on the bed.

"Are you sure?" Lyon pressed.

"What do you even _want_?" Gray shouted leaping to his feet suddenly.

He was hurting in every way and ways he never knew possible. He didn't know what to do with himself and he didn't even know why he was shouting at the older boy, who hadn't even done anything except try to get him to play with him despite not even wanting Gray around and all that painful stuff Gray had overheard.

Gray's sudden angry and sad sounding outburst startled Lyon, whose eyes widened and he stepped back a few steps, his eyes narrowing slightly.

 _He's obviously been up all night again._ Lyon thought looking at the dark circles under Gray's eyes, that he's realized had been there even while they'd been training.

 _But they're reddish too...has he been crying in here since he came in? Is it his parents or something else that's upsetting him?_ Lyon wondered slightly worriedly.

He felt a tinge of sympathy for the boy despite how the boy usually acted like a jerk.

 _Had Ur been right about Gray not really being a jerk and this was all just his sadness and pain and anger coming out? Was there really another side to this boy than this bitter grieving bratty kid?_

Lyon didn't answer Gray, whose expression still looked more exhausted and sad than it looked angry and mean.

Could it really be possible that Lyon actually didn't know _anything_ about what this kid was really like? Like when he was happy? Perhaps this boy hadn't always been the jerk he came across as _now? And if that were true...was there something he could or should do about it like Ur was trying to do?_

Gray glared silently at Lyon who seemed lost in his thoughts until he looked directly into Gray's dark blue eyes.

For some reason Gray seemed to look away when Lyon did so.

"Do...you have anything you want to say?" Lyon asked, considering that maybe Gray was being shy?

After all, Gray hadn't been living here all that long and the three were all sort of strangers still, weren't they?

"No." Gray muttered turning away.

"You...you look really tired." Lyon said softly. "Were you trying to sleep?" Lyon asked him.

"I don't know." Gray replied numbly.

"Hm..." Lyon hummed thoughtfully. "Did you want me to leave you alone so you can try to sleep? You look awful." Lyon asked.

Gray glared at the older boy and whipped a pillow at him.

The pillow collided with Lyon's face and he stumbled back a few steps.

"What'd I say?" Lyon asked wondering what in the world he'd done wrong to get Gray to do that out of the blue.

"You're the one whose super weird." Gray muttered, trying to argue back.

"I'm not weird. And talk about a lame way to answer someone. Besides, I didn't mean it like-" Lyon started.

But he was interrupted as another pillow flung at him, hitting him in the chest.

Gray felt some slight relief from his anger like he had with his training as he threw the pillows at the older boy. But the anger and pain arose again when he remembered pillow fights he'd used to have with his mom and dad. Usually it had been him and his mom against his dad...

Lyon just managed to catch the second pillow that had hit him in the chest when he looked back at the younger boy only to feel a tinge of sympathy when he saw some tears in the corners of Gray's eyes.

"Hey Gray?" Lyon muttered softly.

 _Now what am I supposed to do?_ Lyon wondered.

"Gray...do you want to talk about-" Lyon started, figuring he could listen if Gray needed to talk about something, but then again, the things that were most likely bothering Gray were pretty horrendous and depressing, so it was no wonder when Gray interrupted him again by throwing the last pillow at him.

"Okay..." Lyon muttered slightly awkwardly at the others lack of talking, as he caught the pillow, especially since that one was Ur's and placed it back onto the bed.

"Okay Gray. I guess I'll take that as you don't want to talk about it." Lyon decided.

Gray stared at Lyon tiredly, when suddenly Lyon smiled slightly.

"I get it!" Lyon exclaimed.

Gray's eyes widened. _What could Lyon possibly get?_ Gray wasn't even sure why he was throwing pillows at Lyon except perhaps to let out a bit of his anger maybe.

"You may be really upset and all from everything...but now you're trying to play again even though you're still pretty upset. Am I correct?" Lyon asked a proud and smug grin on the boy's face.

Gray frowned, and said nothing. He didn't care about that stuff anymore. He just wanted to avenge his parents and somehow find a way to be happy again, even though he didn't believe that was possible unless he could discover time magic and go back to before his life was torn apart and taken away along with everyone he'd cared about.

He wanted out of this crazy, painful and terrifying nightmare he was living.

Seeing Gray standing there in silence looking like he was going to cry more, Lyon decided he'd have to try something to get the kid distracted. That way, Ur wouldn't have to try to deal with this.

"Very well then, Gray." Lyon said, with a determined look on his face. "But be warned I'm great at pillow fights, and I'm older than you, so don't get all upset when you're losing."

Gray looked up at Lyon suddenly, and Lyon tossed two pillows at him.

Gray felt too miserable to dodge them and simply let them hit into his face and shoulder.

"Uh...were you not ready?" Lyon asked sheepishly.

"Don't care." Gray muttered miserably.

"You weren't even trying?" Lyon questioned, raising a brow.

Gray simply glared at Lyon and then turned away.

"Why're you even trying to-" Gray started, attempting to ask why the young ice mage was even trying to play with him when he didn't even want Gray here and when Gray was too miserable to do anything.

But he was interrupted by a pillow hitting him in the face and the white haired boy's laughter.

"I totally got you back for when you kept interrupting me!" Lyon laughed. "Revenge is mine." He added with a mischievous smirk. "Unless you want to fight back and see who the true superior pillow fight winner is gonna be?" Lyon taunted.

Gray glanced at Lyon, his eyes were still watery looking and red with the dark circles under them, but Gray tightened his fists, making Lyon think for a second that they'd started another problematic fight or argument again.

But he smiled in relief as Gray threw a pillow at him with awesome speed but too much force.

"Ow!" Lyon exclaimed as he got hit in the face. "Okay, two rules-" Lyon started, but got interrupted again by another pulling flying at his side.

Gray kept going at it; despite how Gray seemed to be paying attention to what Lyon was saying while Gray threw pillows, it was extremely difficult for Lyon to concentrate on what he was trying to say while he dodged pillows and hoped Gray would listen to him.

"One, we don't touch Ur's pillow!" Lyon declared, as he threw a pillow at Gray to stop him from touching their teacher's pillow again. "Two. We don't aim for the face or use too much force when we throw them!" Lyon called louder as Gray jumped off the bed swinging a pillow at him. "And three, we have to be careful not to break any-" Lyon started.

Just as he was speaking Gray leapt back, and got back onto the bed, and jumped at Lyon turning sideways slightly.

Lyon quickly moved to the side to avoid the incoming pillow attack, managing to do so, but then there was a loud crash.

"Gray!" Lyon exclaimed as the boy crashed into the bedside table, knocking it and anything on it to the floor along with himself.

Lyon dropped his pillow and hurried to the younger boy who lay sprawled out on the floor where he'd fallen, his head turned to the floor with his bangs covering his eyes slightly. Lyon was pretty sure the kid was wincing.

"You okay?" Lyon asked kneeling in front of the boy, trying his hardest to ignore the mess that had been made.

Gray didn't reply right away, causing Lyon to get slightly worried, especially if Ur were to walk in here right now. But luckily, Gray let out a sigh, and pushed himself up into a sitting position but his head was downcast.

"You okay?" Lyon repeated.

"I guess." Gray muttered, any of the excitement or fun he might've seemed to be having with the pillow fight gone.

Lyon didn't really think there was much of anything about Gray that seemed okay. He looked extremely upset almost like he was trying not to cry. He looked almost as bad as earlier when he'd had the strange little fit when they were training.

But Lyon didn't really know what he could do about that. If Gray wasn't hurt from his fall and it was just him being upset over his dead parents or any of that, then Lyon didn't really have any idea of how to help him except get him distracted and maybe get him to train or something to get a goal to push him forward in his now shattered life.

Lyon pushed the bedside table back into place and everything back to exactly how he'd memorized it and then he went back to the raven-haired boy. He hesitated slightly, but then he knelt beside Gray.

"Are you hurt?" Lyon asked, suddenly wondering if Ur had heard all the commotion.

"No." Gray muttered bitterly.

"Are you sure?" Lyon pressed as he moved closer to check the younger boy over for any new injuries.

"Go away." Gray muttered, his voice brittle as if he could choke up and start crying right there.

Lyon remained silent for a moment. _The kid sure seemed to have a lot of bottled up emotions didn't he?_

Lyon moved closer to the boy, who may after all be more of a stranger than he thought, and perhaps less of the rude jerk Lyon had thought he'd met.

"You want me to go away and leave you alone?" Lyon asked slowly.

Gray was about to say yes, but something about the leaving him alone part hit him hard and he fought back his tears.

He already felt alone, more alone then he'd ever thought possible. But then here were these two strange people who had taken him here and gave him shelter, food and water, and seemed to be trying to help him. Even Lyon was starting to seem less like he hated Gray and more like he was trying to help perhaps...

 _They're just wasting their time_. Gray thought sadly as he squeezed himself into a tight ball as a few tears escaped and ran down his cheeks.

Lyon glanced at the younger boy sympathetically. He'd lost his parents too at some point, although having spent most of his life in an orphanage and barely remembering his family, Lyon wasn't quite sure what to do about the insane level of sadness and anger that Gray showed towards everything. Especially the lack of wanting to do anything. It was almost like the boy didn't understand how to be a normal kid anymore. He was just so...so broken.

Lyon sat closer to Gray, trying to think of something he could say or do to help the kid.

"Should I go get Ur?" Lyon asked Gray quietly.

Gray remained silent except for a slight sob that he tried to hide.

Lyon slowly lifted his hand, after some hesitation, he placed it onto the younger boy's shoulder. Gray seemed to startle and try to pull away a bit.

 _Okay..._ Lyon thought to himself. _Maybe distraction will help. Yeah, distraction. Works for me_. He thought hopefully.

"Hey Gray?" Lyon started in a normal volume. "You were pretty good with the pillow fight. Too rough and ridiculously reckless...but pretty good." Lyon explained.

When he got no reply, Lyon continued.

"I bet you're going to want a rematch sometime, huh? I did win after all." Lyon pointed out.

Still Gray said nothing.

"Kid?" Lyon asked, poking the other boy on the shoulder.

Gray's form seemed to sway to the side. Lyon's eyes widened, realizing the other boy had fallen to sleep. Quickly he grabbed Gray before the sleeping boy could hit the floor and he awkwardly pulled the boy into the opposite direction. But since Gray had been curled up in a bit of a ball, he ended up accidentally dropping the boy onto his own lap.

Lyon wondered whether he should wake the kid or whether he should put him up onto the bed...because he certainly wasn't going to let the jerk-even if he wasn't as much as a jerk as he'd originally come across as, Lyon certainly did not want to be the kid's napping place.

Lyon carefully lifted the boy up, but due to him being under the sleeping kid, and trying to lift the boy onto the bed, he kept stumbling and nearly falling.

He winced as the boy's face flopped forward hitting his arm, and Lyon gritted his teeth when he felt the kid's wet and hot tears that covered his cheeks.

 _Almost_...! Lyon thought as he pulled Gray a bit higher.

Suddenly he heard footsteps, nearly causing him to let go of the younger kid.

This was going to look strange.

"Lyon?" Ur's voice spoke softly from behind him.

"Yeah...?" Lyon asked feeling awkward.

"What are..." Ur started but she broke off and remained silent as she walked across the room.

Now standing beside Lyon who had finally managed to carefully, so he wouldn't wake the kid, get him off his lap and onto the bed.

Smiling, Ur took ahold of the sheets and pulled them up and onto Gray, who in his sleep immediately grasped them tightly as he adjusted his position.

"I think he cried himself to sleep." Lyon muttered quietly.

Ur nodded knowingly and then glanced at her older student.

"You okay?" Ur asked.

Lyon nodded thoughtfully.

"Anything that I should know about?" Ur asked suspiciously.

"He knocked the table and fell off the bed and probably bruised himself up, and I think he was in here crying before I got here." Lyon replied. Lyon hesitated for a moment. "And...I think you might be right about him possibly not always being as bad and rude as he seems...maybe..." Lyon added.

Ur smiled.

"We'll help him through this and I bet we'll get to know him more, and eventually he may be a happy kid again. Then we'll be able to know him for more of who he really is." She said confidently. "Should we go play a few games or something before dinnertime comes and things get noisier when our new mouthy stubborn friend wakes up?" Ur asked jokingly.

"Sure." Lyon answered smiling slightly, but he didn't really think of the kid as a friend, even if the kid wasn't really as much of a jerk as he formerly believed.

Now he wasn't entirely sure what to think about the kid.


	6. Feisty Resistance

**Thanks for all the follows and favorites and reveiws! Sorry about the slow updates.**

 **Thanks so much for reading! Have a nice day!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

Gray awoke from his thankfully dreamless sleep to the sound of voices chatting happily and the smell of some kind of food cooking.

The boy sat up and yawned, allowing himself a moment to re-adjust and take in exactly where he was.

 _Not home._ He would tell himself before his mind could jump into any flashbacks. _Ur's house. Remember where you are for once._

The boy's eyes filled with tears at the thoughts; and since he was alone he allowed them to fall. After a few moments he wiped them away.

He longed for his parents or at very least maybe his old favourite stuffed toy that he had never known for sure whether it was a husky or a wolf, but he'd always loved playing and sleeping with it. Since he'd had it since he was a baby, it had gotten a name that he wasn't sure was the most creative since he'd been so young when he'd named it, but it's name had been Buddy.

But Buddy, just like his family and friends and entire village, was gone. All gone.

Gray turned to look around the room, trying to focus on something different, and less depressing, despite how he _needed_ his family or at the very least Buddy, but neither were here for him anymore.

He didn't remember falling to sleep on the bed, just that he'd maybe fallen to sleep leaning against the bottom of the bed when he had been trying to keep Lyon from seeing him cry.

Lyon already treated him like a baby or someone way below him, he didn't need to help Lyon continue to think he was some kind of cry baby. Despite how Gray was sure Lyon would be crying had _he_ been through what he had been.

Suddenly the fact that he barely seemed to know these people once again came across is mind.

They were definitely _strange_ with their weird ice magic training that required them to _strip_ down to their _underwear_ in the _snow_.

Gray shivered at the memory, that had to have been his craziest and coldest memory he possessed. And he had always lived in Isvan. Which was typically a pretty cold country, at least compared to other places like Fiore.

But still, he knew very little about the people who had taken him in and their backstories, though he didn't particularly care...or did he?

Gray focused on the voices he could hear, which sounded like they were coming from the kitchen.

"Got ya." Lyon's voice said happily.

"Hm...didn't see that one." Ur replied.

They sounded like they were having fun. Gray suspected that the two were playing the board game that Lyon, for some strange reason had kept offering Gray to play.

 _Why does he offer me to play with him when he had confronted Ur about why she'd taken me in making it clear he doesn't even want me around?_

Gray still didn't understand it.

He glanced around the room wondering what in the world he should do. Laying around in here wouldn't do anything for him or anyone. But he didn't really feel like doing anything, unless time travel were possible, or something, anything that could bring him his family back.

Gray hesitantly climbed off the bed and walked towards the other room. He felt strangely numb and unconnected to anything. Crossing his arms across his chest he continued on.

 _What's wrong with me?_ Gray wondered, knowing this had only ever been something he'd felt a few times before. It had always been around or during the times where he'd had his flashbacks.

Gray peeked outside the room; he spotted Ur and Lyon sitting at the table playing a board game just as he had suspected.

For some reason he felt kind of invisible and awkwardly out of place. It made him start to feel lonely under all the numbness.

And like every time he woke up and remembered everything, deep under all the numbness he felt terrified. He was now all on his own in a totally different place with only strangers.

Gray trembled slightly and turned to go back into the bedroom. He would go back in and find somewhere relatively safe and comfortable feeling and he'd hide away from everything in this messed up world.

He felt something inside him protest, he'd once thought the world was all fun and adventure.

He almost felt like crying from the realization of how much had changed...and likely would remain changed forever.

Gray turned to leave, but apparently he wasn't so invisible after all.

"Gray?" Ur's kind voice called to him.

Gray wanted to continue walking away, but found himself turning to glance at the ice mage. Gray didn't glare but he didn't smile either. He stayed neutral, although to Ur he looked like a sad lost and lonely puppy.

Ur glanced at Lyon, who nodded, and Ur stood up and started towards Gray.

"Sleep any better than usual?" Ur asked kneeling down more to Gray's height.

Gray shook his head side to side indicating no.

Ur's expression turned sadder looking, and she leaned closer and wrapped her arms around the boy.

Gray startled and pulled away. Ur let him.

"Sorry." Ur apologized. "Do you want to come in? You don't need an invitation." She assured him as she looked into the boy's dark blue eyes. "It's almost dinner time, why don't I finish my game with Lyon and then you can play against Lyon while I make dinner?" Ur asked glancing between the two boys.

"Sure." Lyon was the first to reply. "Wanna come take a seat?" He asked glancing at Gray, as he gestured to a chair.

Ur walked beside the hesitant boy as they headed towards the table. Ur resumed her previous seat, and Lyon pulled out Gray's chair and glanced at the younger boy expectantly.

Seeing how they all seemed to expect him to sit, Gray flopped down onto the seat, and stared directly at his fidgeting hands, in an attempt to avoid looking at anyone.

"Okay, it's your turn Ur." Lyon said.

Ur nodded and considered her options. Lyon seemed to be winning this round. He had nearly all her checkers pawns trapped.

"Hey." Lyon said glancing away from his master to look at his fellow student. "Don't you want to see what Ur does to suddenly catch up and beat me?" Lyon asked. "I'm so close this time."

Gray hesitantly glanced at Lyon, and frowned as he was greeted with a hesitant smile instead of any kind of scowl or look of annoyance from the older boy. Gray turned his head to look at the checkers board.

"You are close." Gray mumbled as he looked at the board.

Ur reached to pick up a pawn to make her move with. Suddenly Gray sat up straighter.

"Wait..." Gray protested quietly.

Ur and Lyon paused and turned to Gray. It wasn't often Gray started any kind of conversation.

Gray scowled slightly and slumped back in his chair at the sudden attention and strange looks.

"What is it?" Lyon asked, a hint eagerness from his curiosity in his voice.

"If you move that one you'll most likely lose." Gray muttered, directed to Ur.

Ur smiled, something about how causally he said that but mixed with his almost monotonous sad or numb sounding voice, just made things seem a little better maybe. Their was something strange about it.

Ur wished she could see the boy smile for once. But at least this looked promising. _Maybe he was starting to open up slightly? Or maybe he was just sick of doing almost nothing all the time all by himself._

"Oh...I see." Ur said rechecking the move she was about to make. "Where would you move?" She asked him.

Lyon watched as Gray slowly scanned around the checkers board barely moving, except for his head and eyes, until he lifted an arm and pointed to a checkers piece.

"That one." He said simply.

Lyon's eyes widened. He hadn't seen that move when he'd checked everywhere for all the perfect moves.

"Hm..." Ur said smiling. "Shall I do this move? Or would it be cheating to have a little helper?"

Gray didn't respond to being referred to as "a little helper" and Lyon hesitated, but shrugged it off. Clearly Ur was asking him if it was okay to do it even though Gray had thought of the move, when it was originally just a game between Lyon and Ur. But Lyon figured it didn't matter too much. If Ur won, then Ur won. She was the best after all. Surely she would've come up with another awesome move to turn the game around even _if_ she'd done that bad move she had almost done.

Lyon nodded approvingly. But then looked away in annoyance as Ur made the move that managed to free herself and take out one of his movers.

The game went on for only a few more minutes until the game ended with Ur as the winner.

"That was a good game." Ur said, smiling at Lyon. "I'm going to go make dinner, you two can play or even go outside if you want. Just let me know before you go out if you choose to do that." Ur said getting up from her chair and heading towards the kitchen counters.

"Okay." Said Lyon as he returned Ur's smile. "So..." Lyon said after a moment, as he turned to Gray. "Checkers, another board game, or do you want to go outside?" He asked the younger boy.

Gray just glanced down at his feet swinging them around under that table.

"Look, I know...I know you're sad, but sitting around isn't really going to do much unless you're tired right?" Lyon asked, hoping it wouldn't start up another fight. "And you've gotta admit our pillow fight was pretty good. You know, besides the few problems it had."

Still Gray remained silent, but he hesitantly looked at the older boy.

"Do you want to go outside and we'll get some extra training in?" Lyon offered. He usually did that alone or with Ur, but maybe he could help Ur by getting the kid to get up and do something that could help him out in the future.

Gray shrugged and lay his head down on the table, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Do you want to come?" Lyon repeated.

Gray shrugged slightly.

"I don't know." He mumbled.

"Okay, lets just play the game then. We'll see if that one move you found for Ur, was your skill or merely luck." Lyon said, smiling competitively at the younger boy.

Lyon reset-up the checkers board and then started to play.

"Your turn." Lyon said after making the first move. He didn't know whether to expect Gray to take a turn or ignore it but after a moment Gray sat up a little bit and took a turn.

The first game ended with Lyon as the winner, causing Lyon to accidentally boast a bit. But it was more than enough to annoy Gray.

"I win! I guess it was just luck for you to see that move last time." Lyon boasted. "I'm getting so much better at this game. I'll beat Ur in it next time for sure!"

"Rematch." Gray said suddenly.

"Okay." Lyon said taken aback.

The next game Lyon won again, but by the third game Gray had won.

"Got ya." Gray said, glancing up at Lyon.

"You finally beat me." Was Lyon's only reply, as the older boy glanced at Gray, wondering why even winning against him in checkers didn't even make the boy smile. There was a look of slight satisfaction perhaps, but there was no smile.

"I suppose you want another rematch so you can catch up to my score and we could see who the champion-" Lyon started but he broke off as Gray climbed out of the chair and walked away without another word.

Lyon frowned. Well _that_ was _rude_. He thought in irritation, as he tidied up the checkers game all by himself.

"Gray...?" Lyon called. He figured he'd might as well try to find out why Gray did that. Maybe he had a good or at least reasonable explanation for walking off so coldly.

"Gray!" Lyon called as he ran into the kitchen only to find the other boy staring out the window as Ur glanced at him from where she was putting the food into the oven.

Gray startled and nearly fell off the counter.

"What?" He snapped.

"Why're you walking off on me when I was talking to you?" Lyon asked, trying to ignore the other boy's tone he'd used.

"Ur called me." Gray said simply.

"You could've said-" Lyon started.

"I assumed you heard her. Guess your _bragging_ was too loud." Gray replied lowly, looking away from Lyon.

Lyon glared at Gray.

"Why're you being so rude?" He demanded. "I was just excited that I-" Lyon fell into silence as he saw the other boy's face fall, looking sad or something, but the boy turned away to look out the window again.

"So uh...what's up?" Lyon asked.

Ur turned to her older student. "Dinners going to be ready in half an hour. And it's bath night." She explained.

Lyon's eyes widened. "Is that why you only called Gray? You were going to tell him about-" Lyon started.

Ur nodded, her expression unsure.

 _Must be because Gray put up so much of a fight over the stripping that's making her worried about how he's going to react to bath night_. Lyon thought with a smirk.

"Maybe we'll explain when it's time...?" Ur asked quietly.

Lyon shrugged, an amused and mischievous grin on his face.

"It's going to be bath night tonight okay?" Ur said turning back to Gray.

The boy nodded, instead of any kind of scowl he seemed to almost like the idea. He probably felt dirty considering all he'd been through and all the blood he'd seen back in his village was probably all still fresh in his mind. Ur _had_ cleaned him off a bit when she'd fixed up his injuries, but he hadn't had a proper bath since before the demon's rampage destroyed his home.

But she had a feeling it wasn't going to go as easily as she was hoping...after all, Gray had already put up arguments about nearly everything. No way was he going handle this surprise any better than the training method surprise.

But she figured he needed it and even though he would put of a fight, she was sure he'd feel a bit better once it was over.

After their brief conversation, Lyon did some reading and Gray wandered around silently, until dinner was ready.

They ate dinner quietly. Ur would speak to the two boys once in awhile, and they'd have small conversations. It was mostly Ur and Lyon, but she was happy the two boys seemed to possibly be slowly more willing to speak to each other and trying to get along.

When the last of the leftovers were put away, Ur sighed, and approached the two boys. Lyon immediately looked up at her.

"I can help if ya need me to." Lyon muttered quietly, earning a confused look from the other boy.

"Thanks Lyon." Ur said smiling. "So..."

"Who's going first?" Gray interrupted quickly. "Lyon can go first, I wanna stay up longer."

"That's not how it's going to work." Ur started. "This isn't going to be like the typical bath, Gray." She continued, earning a suspicious glare from the black haired boy. "I'm going to go get it ready." Ur said, accidentally reaching and ruffling both boy's hair as she passed by them.

Gray clenched his teeth and turned his gaze to the floor. He fidgeted with his hands nervously as he waited for Ur to return.

"We're going to become so strong someday." Lyon said conversationally, his gaze fixed on Gray. "Are you going to try to surpass Ur, too?"

Gray shrugged. "I'm just going to get stronger so that I can destroy Deliora." He replied bitterly.

"Right..." Lyon muttered. "But maybe you want to create some other goals too? Maybe some that might be able to happen sooner than what you're going for."

Gray glared icily at Lyon.

"I'm going to get strong enough. I _will_." Gray argued angry, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

"Okay, okay. Whatever you say then. Don't get yourself all worked up, it was just a question." Lyon replied. "Jeez, you're so feisty sometimes."

"Shut up." Gray snapped turning his head away and crossing his arms.

"Oh come on...now you're going to be grumpier with me?" Lyon asked in annoyance.

Gray turned away, puffing his cheeks out slightly as he made a irritated sound, barely opening his mouth.

Lyon sighed.

"So immature." Lyon sighed again, rolling his eyes at the younger boy's grumpy actions.

Before Gray could say anything back to argue or defend himself, Ur returned.

"Baths ready. Come on you two." Ur said.

"I don't wanna have a bath with Lyon..." Gray whined as he caught onto part of the situation. "That's weird."

Ur turned and looked the boy in the eyes. Gray glanced away as he always did.

"Sorry but it doesn't make sense to waste extra water and time when there's lots of training you both need to get done, and this _is_ going to be a part of your training. I figured it also works better if Lyon's there so he can...make sure you actually _have_ your bath." Ur explained as they continued towards the bathroom.

"What do ya mean?" Gray asked suddenly more worried than before.

"It's not gonna be warm." Lyon answered trying to be helpful.

Gray gulped, wondering how cold it was going to be by the way Lyon had worded that.

"I don't wanna bath with Lyon!" Gray protested. "Can't I just-"

His sentence broke off when the reached the bathroom. Gray stared in shock at the large bathtub that was filled with water...and huge chunks of ice floating around in it.

Gray stared in shocked silence for a few moments, as Ur and Lyon awaited his reaction.

 _This can't be happening_... Gray thought miserably.

He glanced up at Ur. _No way was the ice witch serious_...

But the expression on her face seemed to say otherwise, no matter how he looked at her.

"Y-you've gotta be kidding!" Gray exclaimed in total shock, all his uncomfortableness of the idea of bathing with the other boy forgotten for the moment.

"I told you my training is tough. But ice baths help your body get used to the cold. If you came in from training and had a hot bath to warm up it would undo nearly all the work you've done." She explained.

"You can't be serious! No way!" Gray exclaimed.

Lyon chuckled as he prepared two towels and set them up nicely, close enough to the bathtub that they'd be able to reach them if they needed to. Who knew whether Gray would splash him in the eyes in his resistance to Ur's training.

"You don't have to, but you won't be a very strong wizard if you don't." Ur warned him.

Gray stomped his foot on the ground.

"Stop messing with me! No one takes _ice_ baths on the top of a snowy mountain! I'm gonna get frostbite!" Gray was totally freaking out now. "You can't be serious! No way am I getting in there! I'll train and be a mage but I am not going to do _that_! Why're you people so crazy? It has _freaking mini ice bergs in there!_ "

Ur watched her newest student as he ranted on and occasionally stomped a foot or tighten his fists.

"We're gonna freeze to death!" He exclaimed.

"Do you still want to learn ice magic?" Ur asked him.

"Yeah! Of course I do!" Gray shouted. "I just don't wanna-"

"Then in you go." Ur said calmly.

"No!" Gray declared. "No way!"

"You won't be a very strong mage if you don't do your training Gray." Ur warned him again.

"It's got _ice cubes_ in it! And even _that's_ an understatement!" Gray argued, still throwing his fit.

"It's your decision." Ur said, accidentally chuckling slightly at the boy's antics. She knew he wasn't happy about this, but he was so stubborn and would not give in to either of his options.

He wouldn't accept failing her training and he wouldn't accept the ice bath.

"That's fine. You don't have to do it." Ur said as Gray seemed to still be freaking out.

Lyon glanced up at his teacher trying to guess what her plan was. _Was Gray not going to continue training?_

Catching Lyon's gaze Ur smiled gently at him, and shrugged slightly. Her smile looked somewhat concerned and somewhat amused.

Lyon smirked and glanced between his calm teacher and practically panicking and completely freaked out fellow student.

"Are you going to just get in the bath or go away? I don't want it to be super loud." Lyon asked in annoyance.

"So you've done this and are totally fine with this craziness?" Gray exclaimed turning to Lyon.

Lyon tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out as more of a prideful smirk.

"Yup." He answered. "You get used to it eventually." He added hoping it could help.

"You're all crazy!" Gray declared, his body shaking from all his bottled up fear and anger.

"Then if you won't have your bath then let's just go and let Lyon have his." Ur said reaching towards Gray in an attempt to calm him.

 _Maybe this training would prove too much for the poor kid. He had been pretty traumatized by everything he'd gone through, maybe it wasn't the time._ Ur thought sadly. Even though Ur was not quite giving up on training the boy.

"But I have to learn to use magic!" Gray protested.

"Then have your bath." Ur said.

"But I can't!" Gray protested.

"Why don't you feel the water's temperature and slowly get in?" Lyon suggested.

Gray put a hand in the water and yanked it out.

"That Ice is even colder than the stuff outside!" Gray declared.

"I made it with magic. Magic ice is supposed to be colder." Ur told him. "That's normal."

"And Ur's ice is probably the coldest and strongest ever since she's so powerful." Lyon added.

Ur sighed at the two boy's antics and put her hand to her head as she felt a headache coming on from the two boy's racket.

"No way am I going to get in there! That's crazy! It's full of _giant ice cubes!_ I'll freeze to de-" Gray started, but felt himself lift up off the ground and move closer towards the large bathtub. "No way! I'm not gonna do it! You can't make me!" Gray protested, his limbs flailing all about in his desperate resistance.

And suddenly he was lowered in, clothes and all, and he gasped and shivered, then glared up at Ur.

The panic he'd allowed himself to go into almost resurfaced some of his old long forgotten memories of his fear stages when he was a baby or a toddler and had been worried the drain could suck him down it, and eat him.

For a moment Gray and Ur stared into each others eyes, Ur was smiling gently. Gray's expression was still one of surprise, though there was something else to it that was hard to read.

"Crazy ice witch." Gray muttered as he shivered.

"You're welcome." Ur said smiling slightly, only just managing to miss the name calling, she turned and smiled at the smirking Lyon. He look extremely amused.

"Nice job!" Lyon called to Ur as she left them alone to have their baths in private.

Lyon tried his hardest not to laugh at the sight of the younger boy freezing and still dressed in the large bathtub.

"Want some help?" Lyon offered.

Gray completely ignored him, but frowned and struggled to get out of his soaking wet clothes.

Lyon shrugged, but winced as he saw Gray struggling in almost a panic at trying to get his shirt off.

"Here..." Lyon muttered, as he slowly approached the panicking boy, and yanked on his shirt, pulling it over his head and letting it land with a splat, on the bathmat with the rest of Gray's discarded clothes.

Gray slowly started to calm down, but didn't speak to Lyon.

Lyon picked up all the discarded clothes and stuck them in a laundry basket and then he got undressed and got into his bath as well.

Lyon was pretty used to it at this point, but Gray was shivering like crazy for the whole thing.


	7. Forever Changed

**Thanks so much for reading! So the next chapter after this may need more work since it turned out a lot darker than I originally planned and I don't usually write really dark stuff. But after I check it over I'll decide. But stuff like the next chapter and a few little things in the end of this one are probably the reasons I put this story under T. Thanks so much for the reviews and favourites and follows! They're all so great!**

 **Thanks to everyone who's reading this!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Gray, Ur, or Lyon.**

Ur sat on a chair as she read a book while she waited for the boy's, her two students Lyon and Gray, to be finished their ice bath. She had been reading for about an hour, so she was sure that the two boys would be out soon.

She was honestly surprised if Gray, her newer student had even stayed in the bath that long, but then again, getting out was always cold too. Especially when the house was only warmed with the fire that she had only just lit before she'd gotten the boys' bath ready, and otherwise the only other heat source would be the oven and other appliances, or blankets.

But due to her effective training methods of learning Ice make, she was extremely well adapted and used to the cold. It _wasn't_ a pure immunity, since that wouldn't really work, she _was_ human after all. And only lost types of slayer magic could possibly give pure immunities to harsh elements at their most extreme. And ice make itself wasn't actually typically the strongest type of magic you could learn like slayer magic typically was. But ice make was a type of magic that could be strengthened into one of the strongest with the right mage and enough of the proper training and enough practice. So it wasn't the strongest, but could become so if the mage was dedicated enough to strengthen it to that point.

Despite how many times Ur would correct Lyon about not actually being the strongest mage or ice mage, whichever it was the boy thought, and she was definitely not the strongest mage, despite how she did have a pretty good reputation for her skills.

Ur figured one of the villagers somewhere who had believed her to be the strongest mage in Isvan had probably given Lyon the strange ideas that had sent the boy up here and into her life in the first place.

Ur sighed. People didn't listen to her and they always just decided things and spread false rumours.

But she smiled anyway since the ridiculous rumours _had_ brought her, her first student, who made her proud everyday with his progress. Plus she also found that teaching the boys was sometimes a very good distraction from-

-Ur's thoughts were interrupted as she heard louder voices from the other room.

"Was it really that bad?" Lyon asked as he stepped out of the bathroom.

"I-I-it's f-freezing! Freezing magic ice cubes sh-shouldn't b-b-b-be in-a bath." Gray replied still in the bathroom.

"Oh come on, get dressed and come on out." Lyon said already dressed in his light blue pyjamas.

"B-b-but I can't..." Gray moaned as he shivered.

Ur closed her book and made her way towards Lyon and the close bathroom door.

"What's the problem?" She asked her older pupil.

Lyon shrugged and knocked on the door.

"Are you just whiny because you're tired and cold?" Lyon asked.

"N-no!" Gray sounded offended but also freezing.

"What's wrong Gray?" Ur asked picking up on the boy's stress.

"All my clothes are wet." The boy murmured.

"Oh...!" Ur put her hand to to her face. She'd forgotten that Gray only had the one set of clothes that he had been wearing when they'd rescued him. "Lyon, do you have anything extra clothes you may have grown out of?" She asked Lyon hopefully. "We can go pick something up next time we go out to the stores either way."

"Hm...I don't know." Lyon answered, not really wanting to share his stuff with the younger student of Ur's. "But I guess I could go check." He added, not wanting to disappoint his master.

"Thank you Lyon."

Ur went and took the laundry basket, taking it to where she could wash it all. When she thought they were probably clean enough she put the clothes by the fire place and went to check on Lyon to see whether he'd found something or not.

"Any luck?" Ur asked the white haired boy.

"My stuff might be too big on him." Lyon replied shrugging.

"Hm..." Ur hummed thoughtfully, as Lyon went through his clothes. "Maybe we should think of something else, you don't actually have a lot to wear yourself."

"If it's not for too long then he can borrow this I guess." Lyon said holding out a shirt and a pair of pants, both in which were very plain.

"Thank you Lyon." Ur said, as she accepted the clothes from the white haired boy. "Gray. Lyon is willing to lend you some pants and a shirt while you wait for your stuff to dry off." Ur explained from outside the bathroom door.

There was a quiet whimper or moan from behind the bathroom door but neither Ur nor Lyon were sure what Gray had said.

"Alright, I'm going to toss them into the room for you." Ur said, opening the door just enough so she could toss the clothes into the room and onto the floor where Gray could get them, then she closed the door again.

Ur shook her head and shrugged. _Who knew if Gray would even accept the spare clothes. He might just stay in there until his are ready_. Ur thought, wondering how the boy could always be so stubborn. _But then again, maybe he'll get too cold and take them because of all of that._

"Well..." Lyon started casually as the two walked away from the bathroom. "That's got to be the biggest tantrum he's thrown yet. Even with the stripping he didn't freak out _that_ much. It was kinda funny how you tossed him in..." Lyon mused.

"His stubbornness wouldn't let him take either option. He clearly wants to learn, but he's not handling the training too well yet." Ur replied, with a slight chuckle as she remembered Lyon's first times training with her compared to Gray's. "You weren't half as stubborn." She added smiling.

"That's because I know you're the strongest wizard ever, and that there's no way you'd make me do something that didn't have a purpose. It's necessary to be as strong as you are. Even if it's a little unpleasant at first." Lyon answered.

"I'm not the strongest wizard Lyon." Ur argued barely finishing before they heard another voice speak up.

"A little unpleasant is a complete understatement."

Gray was standing just outside the bathroom door, his eyes more on the floor than facing them as he muttered his comment quietly. He was dressed in Lyon's spare clothes, and his hair was still soaked as if he hadn't even tried to dry it.

"Whatever. You're just a little kid." Lyon commented casually.

"I'm barely younger than you are." Gray argued.

"But not as mature. You're more like six or five, while I'm like 15 or something." Lyon argued.

"You're nothing like fifteen." Gray argued. "You're more like a weird nine year old that thinks he's so much older and barely realizes he's _wrong_ because he's so focused on _pretending_ to be a grown up and becoming like someone else, and that doesn't remember he's actually a immature kid who can't stop boasting about everything."

"That's not true!" Lyon protested. "I bet Ur knows I'm more mature than you." Lyon added turning to their teacher.

"Boys...stop fighting." Ur said, feeling a headache coming on.

"You don't even know me." Gray snapped, and glancing briefly in Ur's direction, he pushed passed Lyon, walking away into the other room without another word.

He didn't want to be accused and treated as if he was just a really little kid, and worse being judged constantly by these people, or at least Lyon, since Ur technically never said any of it, but Lyon was basically a stranger to him in all reality, he barely knew him at all. They were all still mostly strangers.

Lyon stood there slightly surprised by the other boy's last sentence. Sure they didn't know each other too well, that was true enough. Even though Lyon was trying to get to know the younger boy...but Gray made that an extremely difficult thing to do. But for a moment he felt like maybe there was something more to that sentence. When Gray had said it, he had this pained look on his face. Sure that wasn't unusual, but he still wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Hey Ur?" Lyon asked.

"Yes Lyon?" Ur replied.

"What was that about?" He asked shrugging helplessly.

"He's lonely. He has no one but us, and he makes it hard to help him get to know us when he barely lets us get to know him." Ur explained.

"Somehow...you sound like you feel like you know him really well already." Lyon told her, wondering how she could do that and he still couldn't.

Ur shrugged.

"Just keep trying. Don't push him, but make sure he knows we're here for him." Ur replied.

"Okay." Lyon agreed.

The two reached the living room where Gray was sitting on the carpet.

 _He does look kind of lonely._ Lyon thought, as he walked closer to the black haired boy.

"Hey..." Lyon greeted as he sat down beside Gray on the carpet. "You know...if you'd let me get to know you, then I'd know you and you could know me." Lyon explained.

"What?" Gray asked monotonously.

"Well you told me I don't know you." Lyon replied shrugging. "You're not making it easy to get to know you, if that's something you want."

"Hrmph." Gray grumbled crossing his arms across his chest.

"The clothes fit okay?" Lyon asked.

"I guess." Gray muttered quietly.

"That's good." Lyon said. "Just don't mess them up with anything." He added.

"I ain't a messy baby. I'm _not_." Gray said firmly.

"I never said you were a baby." Lyon replied, surprised at how sensitive Gray actually seemed to be at the moment. Usually he seemed to barely care about anything.

But despite knowing pain and the sorrow of loss from all he himself had been through, Lyon didn't know anything about the utter numbness that Gray kept getting trapped in where he couldn't feel any emotions, whether they were good or bad ones.

"I called you immature. Not a baby." Lyon reminded him.

"You said I was like a five or six year old. That's stupid." Gray muttered tightening his fists.

But part of him felt despair about the whole subject. He didn't want to be called a baby, but part of him despaired that something inside of him had been forever changed so much...whatever it was, it made him feel totally different than the person he was before Deliora destroyed his life. Honestly he was sure being his six or five year old self, would be far happier and...

 _What's happening to me?_ Gray thought fearfully. _Why do I feel so different? Why do I have to see everything over and over in my head and dreams and why is everything such a mess?_ Gray's mind practically screamed.

He felt tears burning in the edges of his eyelids, and a silent sob almost escaped, but he held it back and got up to leave. He didn't want to cry in front of Lyon.

"Wait!" Lyon's voice sounded startled and almost commanding.

Gray halted but didn't turn around.

"I...uh...do you want to watch a movie? Maybe it could help distract you from everything for a little while." Lyon asked.

Gray kicked a foot gently across the floor as he thought.

"No." Gray said rejecting Lyon yet again, just like he always did. Even with Ur most of the time.

"Please? Maybe all three of us could watch a movie together. Please watch a movie with me? I won't call you a baby...and...and I know what you're doing...you know...the reason you won't look at me." Lyon said.

"I'm not." Gray muttered.

"I didn't even have to say you're crying and you know what I'm talking about." Lyon pointed out. "Anyway...want to watch a movie?" He asked again, trying to lighten the conversation, and maybe provide the younger boy with a distraction from his emotions and all the things he'd been through.

Gray glanced slightly at Lyon. He seemed like he genuinely wanted Gray to come join in watching a movie with him. Even though Gray wasn't quite sure why Lyon was seemingly trying to do things with him even though he hadn't wanted Gray around.

Had Lyon changed his mind?

Gray felt a flicker of fragile hope rise inside of him, and he looked into Lyon's eyes for a split second, and then he nodded, and the two sat down on the carpet.

Lyon went towards the tv lacrima and took the remote and sat down beside Gray on the rug.

"I managed to get some of your clothes dry Gray." Ur said as she stepped into the room.

Gray got up, and Ur passed him the dry clothes. Ur nodded, she figured Gray would prefer to wear his own clothes rather than Lyon's spare stuff.

Gray took them, and hurried to the bathroom, and shut the door to change into his own clothes.

His boxers were dry, but his pants were still a bit cold and damp and his shirt was just cold.

Gray changed into his boxers and tossed the other stuff onto the floor in frustration.

 _Why did everything have to be so cold?_

Gray abandoned the clothes on the hanger, where he'd decided to put them so they'd dry sooner and uncomfortably walked and took a blanket that he found and wrapped it around himself and returned to the rug where Lyon was waiting.

"I gave your clothes back." Gray muttered.

"Oh, uh, thanks." Lyon replied, then he eyed Gray suspiciously. "Why're you using a blanket?"

"Because." Was the only reply Gray gave.

"You're cold?" Lyon guessed.

"Course I am." Gray muttered icily.

"You could still use my clothes if yours are still cold and slightly wet." Lyon told him.

"I don't want them." Gray answered. "I don't know where they've been." He added slightly darkly.

"What? That's not very nice I didn't-" Lyon started.

"Mine are dirty. Yours could be too, how would I know?" Gray interrupted, his eyes glassy and haunted looking.

"Mine were clean." Lyon informed him, glancing at the teary eyed boy in confusion. "And Ur just washed yours for you."

"They're dirty." Gray argued.

"No they're not." Lyon argued back.

"They're dirty." Gray insisted. "They're...they were c-covered in a-a-all the-" Gray started, his voice breaking into a sob, and he turned away his voice falling silent.

"Okay, okay...whatever you say." Lyon said evenly. "So you're wearing a blanket because your clothes are apparently still dirty even though they were washed?" Lyon asked.

"Mmhm." Gray mumbled quietly. "A blanket and my boxers too." He added quietly, just so Lyon didn't decide to think that Gray wasn't wearing anything. No way did he want to do that.

"Okay then. Ready to watch the movie?" Lyon asked.

Gray nodded, and wiped away his tears. His clothes had been cold and wet, but he felt like they needed to be washed maybe ten times over to make him not feel like they were still dirty from the bit of blood that had gotten onto it when he'd last seen his parents and then some from his own injuries.

Gray let more tears fall until he finally managed to stop, and he let himself get distracted by the movie as much as possible. Even though some of the minor violence that never would have bothered him much before, he found bothered him now. Some of it made him want to cover his eyes and ears and look away so it wouldn't trigger any flashbacks of real life violence that haunted Gray's mind constantly.

He felt pathetic as he would watch and get the urge to look away or hold onto something. But he wouldn't let Lyon see it. He wouldn't let Lyon know he was bothered by any of it just because he was still shaken from everything with Deliora.

He wasn't a baby.

He couldn't make the memories go away. He couldn't control any of the things that had started haunting him all the time or the fear it all brought to him. He wasn't a baby.

Everything just hurt.

"I'm going to go grab some snacks. Want anything?" Lyon asked as he started to stand up.

Gray shook his head, his eyes still staring at the movie screen where the characters were having a rough battle.

He'd used to always have sword fights with toy swords or sticks with his dad...

Lyon seemed to hesitate, and consider asking again, but remembering what Ur had told him about not pushing Gray to answer or do things, so that they wouldn't accidentally cause the grieving boy to distance himself any more than he already seemed to be doing.

"Alright...I'll be right back." Lyon said as he walked away towards the kitchen.

Ur smiled at Lyon as he passed by her, and then she glanced at the carpet near the TV Lacrima, and she almost instantly could tell something was off.

Gray seemed to be fidgeting with the bath towel and the edges and parts of the fluffy carpet as he stared at the tv. Surely the show Lyon has picked wasn't too much for Gray?

It was age appropriate, but Ur figured maybe the boy was just distracted or something. But it was likely about something the young boy shouldn't be thinking about before bed.

"Gray?" Ur asked in concern. "Are you okay?"

When Gray appeared to make no response, Ur walked over towards the boy. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she repeated her question.

"Are you okay Gray?"

Gray startled, his head turning to face her rapidly.

After realizing it was just Ur, Gray seemed to calm slightly, but the boy glared at her, annoyed and frustrated that such a small thing could make him startle that much. He couldn't believe how ridiculous things were for him now.

 _That was so stupid..._ Gray thought desperately wishing he could make the fear go away, especially now that it was making him startle at just Ur touching him.

"What do you want?" Gray asked, his voice still startled, but to Lyon as he walked back with his snack it simply sounded just plain rude.

"You okay?" Ur asked.

Her kind and gentle smile made Gray feel slightly guilty for how he'd just sounded, but he simply shrugged and turned back to the TV.

Ur gently ruffled the boy's hair, before remembering that it reminded Gray of someone else who was most likely gone.

But glancing back worried about her mistake, she noticed Gray seemed just as quiet and tired and fidgety seeming as he did when Ur had first approached him when she had caught him fidgeting nervously.

Lyon took his seat on the rug beside Gray and they continued watching the movie, even though Gray wasn't really paying attention to it as much anymore.

And when the movie was over, the three would brush their teeth and get ready for the night, and go to bed, where Lyon fell to sleep first, followed by Ur, and lastly, Gray. Who was having a lot of trouble getting to sleep with all the fear and disturbing memories that still haunted his mind so clearly.


	8. Dreams Of Darkness

**Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews! Sorry this chapter has taken so long to publish. It turned out far darker than I intended and I'm not really used to writing really dark stuff like this chapter. This chapter would be why this story is rated T, just as a warning. It got really dark and sad here. Hopefully it was worth the long wait.**

 **Thanks so much for your patience and thanks for reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Fairy Tail.**

Chapter 8 Dreams Of Darkness

 _Deliora's deafening roar bellowed loudly as it plowed through the village. It was happening so fast yet the demon seemed to be moving at an oddly leisurely pace as it went about its destructive rampage._

 _Panicked screams cried from all around so many directions that it was almost impossible to pick out any individuals._

 _A woman with dark hair ran as fast as she could, her shaking hand holding tightly to her crying son's smaller trembling hand._

" _M-mama!" The boy cried in terror._

 _Mika turned briefly to the crying boy as he watched their house from behind them crumbling and falling to the ground._

" _Come here!" Mika cried, lifting the boy into her arms as she ran._

 _Gray clung tightly to his mother more terrified than he'd ever been in his life._

" _Mama...!" Gray cried, though it was hard to hear over the crashing and banging of buildings being crushed._

 _Mika hugged the boy tightly, knowing he was extremely terrified, plus she hadn't heard him call her "mama" in years. Which made the boy sound even more scared._

 _Mika ran as fast as she could, her lungs burning and screaming for oxygen, but her mind was screaming for her to keep running._

 _She paused in a field just away from the main path of the demon and tried to set the boy down on the ground. Clinging to her tightly the boy looked up at her face._

" _Gray..." She started shakily. "We're going to find a way to get out of this. We're going to be okay. Please..." Mika tried to comfort the boy but as determined as she was to escape and save her family and anyone she could, she feared there was little chance of escape._

 _Mika pulled her only just eight year old towards her, hugging him tightly._

" _I love you. We're going to...we're gonna...we'll make it through this...somehow." Mika said tearfully as she held her son, and feared for all of them._

 _She still didn't know where Silver was, and for all she knew, he could be..._

 _Mika forced the horrible thoughts away momentarily._

 _Last time she'd seen him was when they'd rushed out of the house and Silver had told her to take Gray and run while he ran another direction, Mika was pretty sure he meant to help someone, but she couldn't quite remember due to everything. But she couldn't let her worries for Silver distract her from trying to escape and protect Gray._

" _I-I-I l-love y-you t-" Gray started as he sobbed._

 _Deliora let out another thunderous bellow._

 _Gray screamed, immediately clinging to his mother and still panicking._

" _Lets go!" Mika cried, grabbing the boy's arm as she tried to lead him away. Gray clung tightly to her arm his whole body shaking in terror._

 _Gray tightened his grip and screamed as a blast of green energy shot out from Deliora's mouth hitting buildings and houses and crumbling them into ruins._

 _Some of them had been his friends houses or neighbours or..._

" _Mom!" Gray shouted as some crumbling building headed their way._

 _Mika felt her heart skip a beat. There was a huge amount of rubble heading right for them. There was no way she could dodge it in time._

" _Gray run!" Mika shouted heartbrokenly, as she shoved the boy off of her and out of the way as the building collapsed on top of her._

 _Gray stood there in horror as he stumbled back, both mother and son staring into each others teary eyes before Mika disappeared almost entirely as the heavy wreckage that collapsed on top of her._

" _M-mom..." Gray stammered in horrendous shock, his body frozen and his mind unable to process that this was all really happening._

 _Suddenly he saw more green light, and another row of houses seemed to catch fire and start to collapse._

 _Suddenly something inside him seemed to click and he remembered his mother's voice that had cried out in his for him to run._

 _Instinctively Gray broke into a run, sobbing as he ran through the wreckage._

" _M-mom! No, no, no...!" He cried as he ran, unable to believe what was happening. "Mom, mom, mom..."_

 _Suddenly he turned his head to a few running shapes that had to be scared people._

" _D-dad help!" Gray shouted as he ran, wishing he still had hold of his mom's arm, or at least could possibly know where his dad was. But he had neither._

 _Suddenly something slammed into the boy and sent him flying across the ground tumbling._

 _Gray coughed and winced in pain as he tried to catch his breath as the wind was knocked out of him._

" _Dad!" Gray shouted._

 _He tightened his fists and trembled, slowly pulling himself into a ball. He knew he should run like his mom had told him to, but he was so scared. So scared_.

" _Mika! Gray!" A terrified voice screamed._

 _The first few times Gray couldn't tell the man's voice from all the others, but when he did he started to cry harder._

" _Dad!" He screamed as Deliora made another loud roar, that made his ears hurt and his small battered and bruised body trembled violently in absolute terror._

 _He didn't see the man approaching because his eyes had been squeezed shut tightly as to try not to see all the terrible things he'd kept seeing since all this had started._

 _Hearing his son's cries and hoping it was Gray, Silver ran as fast as he could, following the sound whether it was Gray or not he definitely would've gone after the cry anyway. He wanted to save anyone he could. But he couldn't help his worry and fear for his son, his wife...and everyone else._

 _Silver caught sight of the trembling boy face down in the dirt, far too close to a burning building._

 _Silver rush towards Gray hoping desperately that he wouldn't get to the boy too late._

 _Suddenly a beam of the building broke free and fell off, sending sparks of fire down onto Gray._

 _Gray screamed as burning hot bits of debris hit him, but he choked when he felt the burning stop and a tight shaky embrace holding onto him tightly._

" _Gray..." Silver's voice was terrified yet slightly relieved, as he tightened his grip on the boy._

" _D-d-dad..." Gray sobbed. "M-mom got...m-mom...m-mom's..."_

 _Silver fought back tears as he lifted the boy and carried him, hurrying away from the burning building where he'd pushed in front of Gray and the burning splinters of wood, taking the pain to protect his son._

" _Gray..." Silver said shakily. "I need you to listen to me."_

 _Gray shakily looked up as his father._

" _Y-yeah?" He sobbed._

" _We're going to run that way, but we have to be really careful. Once we get to the far side that's already been destroyed, you have to hide, away from anything that could fall on you. Understand?" Silver asked._

" _Y-yeah...o-o-okay..." Gray sobbed holding onto his dad tightly._

" _Let's go." Silver said after a moment, and holding Gray tightly he ran._

 _Silver felt his heavy heart leap with hope as he was almost to the area where it would be less likely for the demon to go back to._

 _The ground shook as the demon took steps destroying everything in or around its path._

 _Gray clung tightly crying into his dad's shirt as Silver carried him in a frantic rushed pace._

 _Silver tightened his grip on the boy, blinking away his own tears to clear his vision so he could possibly get them out of here._

 _There was a loud crack, and the side of the building split making Gray cry out in alarm, and Silver leapt out of the way, sending both him and Gray toppling to the ground._

 _Silver crawled closer to grab Gray, but there was a flash of green light._

 _Silver couldn't tell what exactly had hit; whether it was the green energy beam that Deliora had sent their way or if it had been the debris that it had just created that had come crashing down, but he didn't care about what it had been. Only that he heard his little boy cry out...and with the flash of green light Silver caught a glance of his son, being flung backwards in the air by whatever it was that had hit him._

" _Gray!" Silver shouted in anguish._

 _Silver pounded a fist on the ground. There was no way his little boy could've survived whatever had hit and thrown him with such force._

 _Silver threw the most pained and hateful angry look at the rampaging monster, then he forced himself to his feet and started towards where Gray had been thrown._

 _Suddenly a large building in that area collapsed, and before he could hear if his son had cried out or any sign that he'd somehow survived such a hard hit...Silver felt a large amount of brick hit him, throwing him to the ground, his mind went hazy, and everything else disappeared as it hit his head, silencing his cries._

 _Gray...Mika...I wish... Silver thought before everything went black for what he believed would be forever._

 _Gray rolled out of the way of the building just in time, but lay there shaking and crying as he was somewhat hidden where his dad had said they'd hide._

 _Gray curled up tightly as the demon made horrible noises that seemed to be the only thing he could hear now that all the screaming had been silenced._

 _The boy forced himself to his feet, and ran back towards where he'd last seen his dad, but fell to his knees sobbing and crying more than he'd ever done in his life, at what he found._

" _D-dad..."_

 _Silver lay motionless, his eyes open and with a horrible gaping wound on his forehead._

 _Gray sat by the still body of his father crying and sobbing simply staring down at his dad in horror and despair. He was so terrified and shocked that he couldn't move and couldn't even think about what in the world he could possibly do next. This couldn't be happening._

 _Suddenly something crashed down from somewhere and hit Gray, and he flung into the side of a building. Glancing up, he cried out as tons of rubble fell down on top of him, pinning him...trapping him alive but terrified, hurt and all alone, and scared. He struggled slightly until it was all too much and he eventually passed out._

" _Dad help!"_ Gray cried sitting up suddenly in bed, his breathing heavy and his bangs sticking uncomfortably to his face in a cold sweat.

Gray glanced around the room in a desperate panicked search for his mom or his dad...anyone he could recognize and who wasn't motionless and dead.

Ur startled awake at the desperate cry, Lyon stirred seeming like he was waking, but Gray's panic didn't let down so he hadn't noticed either of them.

Seeing this, the boy's not quite awake and haunted terrified stare, Ur quickly sat up, and sat beside the panicked crying boy, and she wrapped her arms around him pulling him into a hug. Talking to him wouldn't do much good unless the boy was calmed down enough to even hear her.

Gray grasped onto her so tightly as if his life depended on it, welcoming her comfort rather then his usually way pushing her away. But she imagined it was because of his nightmare...or perhaps he wasn't yet even quite aware of his surroundings and who he was clinging onto so tightly. It made her heart ache.

"Gray...you're okay, you're safe here." She said feeling choked up by just seeing the drastic change between this panicking clingy boy to the bitter and rude and stubborn boy she had been forced to toss into the ice bath earlier.

Gray made no reply as he hugged her tightly and started to cry harder.

Ur didn't think Gray had quite gotten aware of his surroundings, so she hugged him tighter, moving her hand in circle motions on the boy's back to try to somehow comfort him.

Ur could feel the boy shaking and crying as he held onto her tightly.

"Gray..." She said softly.

Ur put a hand on his head and hugged him tightly, as he slowly calmed down.

"I want mom and dad..." Gray sobbed after a few moments.

Ur's heart ached as she heard the boy's mournful and desperate words.

"I know." Ur replied gently, brushing her hand through his black hair.

Finally waking up more, Gray clenched his teeth tightly as he started to sob harder, and leaned his head facing downwards but pushed hard against Ur's chest as she hugged him.

"I...I..." Gray stammered shakily as he cried. "I still hear them. I still see them." He cried just above a whisper, his voice filled with pain and fear.

Ur closed her eyes holding the boy tightly.

"It'll get better." Ur whispered to him.

"No it can't-" Gray started.

"It can. It may not be the same, but things will get better." Ur assured him.

"B-but They're g-g-gone...!" Gray sobbed.

"I know it's hard. But things will get better." Ur told him, wishing she could fill the boy with hope for the future to help him overcome the pain from the past. "You're not alone here Gray. I know you miss them all, but we're here for you. You're not all alone." Ur assured him.

Gray felt too scared and sad to listen much to what his teacher was saying. He simply held onto her and continued to cry.

He wished so badly that he could have his parents back here with him. Or his friends, or at least his fluffy toy wolf or husky he'd named Buddy when he was little. But it was all gone. All of it. All because of that horrible demon.

"I wish...I want...I..." Gray stammered tearfully, too tired and upset to form his sentence properly.

"I know." Ur replied gently, hugging him and rocking slightly. "You want your family. I wish I could've found them safe too." Ur told him.

Gray started to cry harder.

"But I'm sure they'd be happy that you're going to be okay."

Gray shook his head side to side as tears covered his face. He felt sad and alone, and felt a tinge of guilt that both his parents had managed to save him, and he hadn't been able to save either of them, or anyone. And now he had to live without them.

"I want them back." Gray sobbed.

Ur pulled Gray closer and hugged him. The boy relaxed his body slightly, resting his weight as he lay somewhat on Ur's lap.

Gray's thoughts mostly dwelled on his family, and slightly on his anger and goal to beat Deliora for all it had destroyed, but mostly he was just missing his family.

Suddenly the fact the he was laying on Ur dawned on him and he realized his tears had pretty much soaked his hands and face and his teacher's lap. Gray wondered why Ur hadn't shoved him off or scolded him for all this. But strangely...she seemed more like she was encouraging it, or at least seemed perfectly fine with him staying on her like this by the ways she was trying to comfort him.

Gray quickly but hesitantly tried to steal a glance at what Ur's expression was like, hoping that it wasn't too dark to see much of it.

Gray hadn't been sure of what to expect, but Ur looked sad and worried, but apparently he wasn't as sneaky and quick as he'd hoped, and he caught her empathetic gaze, and the black haired boy stared up at her wondering why in the world his strict and weird magic teacher was acting so...

Gray wasn't sure what word his tired mind was looking for.

None of his school teachers would ever have been like this with him had he gotten hurt and cried or something.

Something about Ur seemed so unique, yet also so familiar in a way. Not the rough teacher stuff, but the way she'd stay up with him and try to make him feel better.

Normal teachers never did that much for their students, or at least none that Gray had ever had and could remember. Something about it made Gray think for a moment of his mom, but still neither were very similar.

Why in the world did Ur put up with all this? Why in the world did she sacrifice the time she could be getting a good nights sleep just to stay up and sit with him as he cried?

Part of Gray screamed that this was ridiculous and pathetic and he was sure Ur was probably thinking that too.

Gray felt bitter at the thought. He didn't want to be acting like some little cry baby that needed help from a mostly stranger. But at the same time...Gray welcomed the much needed comfort. He hated how lonely and hurt he always felt. Even though none of this lessened his pain, it seemed to fill him, if not slightly, with another feeling too. Something he suspected he'd taken for granted at times. But he started to feel safe and...he wasn't quite sure what the other was...and he was far too exhausted to figure it out.

Ur sat with Gray until his tears began to slow down until his eyes grew heavy and the crying stopped and his breathing deepened. When Ur was sure that Gray had finally fallen back to sleep, she waited awhile longer to make sure he seemed comfortable and for any signs of any more nightmares.

Ur smiled sadly at the sleeping boy, and gently lifted him and lay him back down in his spot on the bed.

Despite the fact Gray had cried himself to sleep, Ur felt relieved that maybe the boy would be able to get the rest of the night to sleep peacefully.

Ur lay back down in her spot, and closed her eyes. She couldn't help but glance over at the two boys to make sure they were both sleeping soundly and not having nightmares or anything like that.

Ur smiled at her two pupils, thinking how cute they actually were.

Eventually she lay back down, and just as she was about to drift off to sleep, she heard Gray make a soft moaning noise and roll over in his sleep.

Ur was about to sit up and check on him, but was surprised as the eight-year-old rolled over closer to her and seemed to cuddle up closer to her as he slept.

She smiled at the boy, imagining how funny it would be if he woke up doing that and then she'd be able to tease him playfully and he'd get all awkward and mouthy.

But honestly, as funny as that could be, sometimes she was so happy with how well Lyon behaved and easy going he could be for her.

Ur smiled at the two boy's; her two adorable students in which she was learning to love so much; probably as much as she had, and always would, love her daughter that she'd lost far too soon.

Ur tried to push her sad memories away, as she slowly drifted off to sleep, but she still felt saddened at the devastating loss of Ultear.

Suddenly Ur felt a warm small hand grip her arm, her mind suddenly thinking of Ultear. Maybe she was just dreaming up some old memories of the too short but wonderful times she'd had with her daughter.

But when she opened one eye to see the black-haired boy gripping her arm as he slept with his mouth slightly open as he snored softly, she couldn't help but smile at him.

Even though the boy was asleep and most likely completely unaware of what he was doing, Ur felt as if he was trying to help her feel better as she had done for him.

But she knew it wasn't so; since Gray didn't know anything about Ultear, and the boy was fast asleep.

But even though it was unintentional, and more likely that Gray was unintentionally trying to get comfort himself while being asleep, somehow it still seemed to help.

Ur still felt the sadness, as she knew she always would. But she also felt the love she had for Ultear and the love she had for her two pupils...and her hope to give Gray and Lyon something so they could move forward and find a meaningful purpose in life. She would help her two students and someday they would do great things in the future.

Ur smiled at the boy's hand that still clung tightly to her arm.

"Gray..." She whispered smiling. "Lyon...Gray... Thank you. Both of you."

Obviously Gray and Lyon were still fast asleep and most likely hadn't heard their teacher's words. But Ur felt grateful for her two adorable students that she knew were going to make her proud. In fact, they already were. And it seemed the more time she spent teaching them and helping them, the more she felt as if maybe, the two boy's she'd taken in were slowly helping her heal her own broken heart.

All three of them had all had some pretty rough times in their lives, and Ur felt it was amazing how they all had each other, and were all slowly managing to help heal each other, whether deliberate or not.

"Goodnight Lyon, goodnight Gray." Ur whispered as she smiled at the two sleeping boys, as she herself closed her eyes and fell to sleep.


	9. Spell Casting

**So here's another chapter featuring quite a few scenes from the anime. Like when Ur punched Lyon on the head for casting with only one hand and Gray's little panic that was in the background at that moment, as well as the unfortunate statement Lyon made about Gray not being able to land a hit on him as kids situation. Poor Gray's going to have to have a lot of that happen in here. Plus small mentions of a flashback from the Tartaros arc.**

 **Hope you all enjoy! Have a nice day and thanks so much for reading!**

Chapter 9

Morning arrived; Gray was once again the last to get up out of bed.

"When're we going to start training?" A smiling Lyon asked as Ur walked into the kitchen.

"When Gray wakes up I suppose." Ur replied, memories from last night still fresh on her mind.

"Want me to go wake him?" Lyon offered.

"No." Ur declined immediately.

"Okay then." Lyon replied positively as he tried to think of anything they could talk about. "Did you sleep well Master Ur?" Lyon asked.

"Not too bad." Ur replied smiling at the white-haired nine-year-old. "But Gray had a rough night, so I think we need to let him sleep as long as possible." She added.

"Hm..." Lyon mumbled as he picked up a cereal box and began to fill his bowl.

"How did you sleep?" Ur asked.

"Okay. Gray kept kicking me in his sleep and I think he was making weird noises but I can't remember cuz I was mostly sleeping. He kept you up again, huh?" Lyon answered.

"I wouldn't put it like that." Ur started. "He woke me, but I chose to stay up with him. It's not his fault. He's been through a lot and it gives him awful nightmares." Ur explained.

"I understand." Lyon replied, taking a bite of cereal. "So...what are we going to do today?" Lyon asked.

"Same routine, except I think it's about time to start Gray with learning some spells. He's making progress quite fast so I think he's ready. That is as long as he's not too tired to do more than usual. But he's managing pretty well so far despite his stubbornness." Ur answered.

"Cool." Lyon commented smiling. "This should be interesting. And it means I'll be able to practice things more my level!"

Despite how Lyon sounded like he thought Gray wouldn't do well and that he would be better at it than the younger student, Ur had to laugh at the boy's happy excitement. Sometimes Lyon's excitement and happiness really helped her feel a bit better after trying to help Gray. Since helping Gray could be so heartbreaking and not all of it could be fixed, or at least not right away. It would be a long process and she was happy that Lyon manages to be happy most of the time, despite him himself, not having the most happy background either.

"Well yeah, I suppose you'll both get more time to practice your own things later today." Ur agreed as she glanced over seeing Gray walk tiredly into the kitchen, once again hesitating to come in.

"Good morning Gray." Ur greeted smiling gently at the tired looking boy.

He had dark circles under his eyes, probably from lack of sleep and possibly crying as well, and he moved slowly and seemed extra quiet this morning.

"Here." Ur said as she reached a glass for the eight-year-old.

Gray tiredly accepted the cup and filled it with water. But he didn't give anyone eye contact as he tiredly slumped down onto his chair at the table beside Lyon.

"Good morning." Lyon said as friendly sounding as he could to the younger boy who'd kicked him almost all night in his sleep.

"Morning." Gray's reply was barely above a whisper, it sounded odd, either he'd been crying or he was feeling really scared or he had a sore throat perhaps.

"Are you feeling okay?" Ur asked him. "You up for training today or would you prefer to take a break?"

Gray seemed to whispered or mutter something under his breath.

"Pardon?" Ur asked not hearing the kid's answer.

"I think he said "I can't take a break"" Lyon answered instead. "Guess he's gonna try to get something done today."

Gray seemed to glare slightly at Lyon's last remark, but it quickly faded into a tired but otherwise mostly plain expression.

"Ur said you're going to start learning spells today if you're up for it, since you were apparently pretty fast at getting the ether-nano and all that." Lyon told him. "Hey Ur?" He added after a moment of silence.

"Yes Lyon?" Ur asked.

"Who was faster at catching on to how to absorb the ether-nano?" Lyon asked.

Ur frowned slightly.

"Not sure. About the same I think." Ur replied not putting much thought into it, since she didn't feel like it was fair to compare the two like that.

Gray glanced up slightly at Ur, who seemed to notice this, and she smiled kindly at him, causing Gray to turn away abruptly and scowl grumpily. But Ur noticed the boy's scowl disappear quite quickly, then his expression turned back to looking tired and nervous.

"Finished!" Lyon announced after he finished chewing the last bite of his cereal.

But he felt annoyed when he noticed that Gray hadn't even touched his breakfast yet. Lyon and Ur had finished, But Gray hadn't even started to eat any of his food.

"Hurry up Gray, or we won't have as much time to train." Lyon said in annoyance.

Gray made no reaction or even a sign that he'd even heard Lyon, as he continued to look down, clearly more focussed on whatever was bothering him than he was on eating and getting ready to train.

"Would you like something different for breakfast?" Ur asked Gray, making the boy suddenly glance up for a short moment.

"No." He replied quietly turning his head back to glancing down at his fidgeting hands.

"Alright..." Ur said, her voice sounding concerned.

"Can we go out and start soon?" Lyon asked eagerly.

Ur hesitated.

"I think we should wait for Gray." Ur replied.

"Go ahead. I'm not stopping you." Gray muttered quietly.

"Can we?" Lyon asked eagerly.

"You sure Gray?" Ur asked, her voice still worried.

Gray nodded up and down, but didn't look at them.

"Meet us out when you're done?" Ur asked him.

"Okay..." Gray answered monotonously.

"Awesome! Let's go!" Lyon exclaimed and Ur followed the white haired boy outside.

Seeing his teacher hesitate slightly, Lyon followed her gaze and looked at the younger student, who was starting down at his untouched breakfast. After a moment they turned and continued outside, but Lyon could tell his teacher was reluctant.

When Ur and Lyon had left, Gray stared down at his breakfast blankly.

His nightmares had been so bad last night and the memories were still fresh in his mind. He felt sick to his stomach from all the fear and horrifying things he'd seen and heard.

He stared at it for a long moment as he tried to push away the memories of the terrifying roars of the demon and the screams of so many people who had all pretty much been neighbours, and his friends and family.

Gray looked distastefully at the breakfast in front of him. He was sure if he were to try to eat it now then the nauseousness that the memories and the nightmare had made him feel would cause him to throw up. For a second he wondered whether he should hide it somewhere and go out to train, but he didn't really care to hide it that much, so he simply slid out of his chair, abandoning the breakfast, leaving it sitting there on the table untouched.

Gray walked through the house, and just as he was about to head outside, he tiredly headed into the bedroom and picked up his clothes and looked them over. Luckily they appeared to no longer have any blood or dirt on them anymore. They looked clean. So he hesitantly started to put them on.

When he finished getting dressed, Gray stood up and from the corner of his eye he saw Ur and Lyon outside training, and then he facepalmed and sighed in frustration.

"This is so dumb..." He muttered as he pulled the shirt and pants that he had just put on, off of him again.

It didn't make sense to get dressed only to be forced to take them off once he got out, at least doing it now meant that his clothes wouldn't get all wet and cold if he were to take them off outside. Unfortunately he was so used to getting dressed in the morning, that it was slowing him down to getting things done, in his new crazy reality.

 _Weird people, and their weird ideas._ Gray thought in frustration.

Now in his boxers once again, the eight-year-old headed for the front door. He felt awkward and weird as he stepped out and walked through the freezing snow with only his underwear on.

Shivering, he crossed his arms across his chest as he walked towards his magic teacher and her older student.

He was greeted by a snowball hitting his knees.

"Hurry up!" Lyon exclaimed, his smile bright.

Gray glared and approached them.

Lyon glanced at the younger boy with a puzzled expression, and then he shoved a handful of snow on the younger boy's head.

"H-hey!" Gray exclaimed, holding up his fists.

"Come on, don't you want to try to beat me?" Lyon taunted.

Gray growled, and picked up some snow and started making a bunch of snowballs. Lyon and Ur exchanged smiles and then Lyon broke into a run, grabbing some snow to form snowballs as he ran.

Gray threw a snowball at Lyon's direction, but Lyon jumped out of the way. Gray tried to throw another and it missed again.

Growling in frustration Gray finally decided to chase after the older boy, with his arms full of snowballs.

From the sideline, Ur laughed at the boys' antics, this sure seemed to be a good way to get Gray running around a bit, even though the kid seemed very frustrated with how he hadn't managed to land a hit on Lyon yet.

Glancing around at his options, Gray finally spotted an area where he might be able to trap Lyon and corner him. Then he'd be able to get the older boy back easily with a huge ambush.

Gray tossed well aimed snow balls at Lyon, three of them narrowly missing the older boy.

 _Why is he so fast!_ Gray thought in frustration.

Gray leapt onto a snow hill and whipped more snow towards Lyon, but Lyon, managed to dodge them, but not without putting himself right where Gray wanted him. Between him, some high snow hills and trees, and the river.

Gray gave a slight triumphant smile at the older boy, who seemed to look surprised at the expression. But the confidence in Lyon's eyes made Gray wonder if his plan had an important error.

Gray quickly threw his large snowball at the older boy, feeling slightly excited as he saw Lyon had no way to dodge it when Gray threw two more snowballs at the other sides. No matter what Lyon did, at least one of them would _have_ to hit him.

Lyon smiled back, his smile holding the upmost confidence, and Gray blinked as Lyon took an ice make stance.

"Ice-make: shield!" Lyon exclaimed, moving his hands from the ice make position put to the sides.

A large circle shield of ice appeared in front of the boy, blocked all three of Gray's snowballs.

Gray stared, his mouth hung open is surprise and amazement.

Lyon smirked proudly.

"Thought you'd hit me there, huh?" He boasted, making Gray clench his fists tightly in frustration.

"Alright boys, time to get some training done, and then you two can continue this if you'd like." Ur said as she approached them.

It wasn't exactly fair if Lyon would use shields when Gray hadn't learned how to make anything with magic yet. Ur wanted to start the training so that maybe Gray would have more of a chance against the older more experienced boy.

"Okay." Lyon agreed smiling at his master.

Gray grumbled slightly but approached the ice mage, and she led them through the snow as their usual routine, running around and doing exercises, all of them could feel as they absorbed ether-nano, and as it turned into magic energy. They continued to follow Ur at a fast pace, until she stopped running and the two boys did so as well, and Ur turned to face the two boys.

Gray yawned tiredly, and looked up at the ice mage for further instructions, as Lyon was already doing.

"Okay, It's time to learn some Molding." Ur announced.

Despite how tired he was, Gray managed to wake up a bit more after the snowball fight, and training, but he felt jumpy and nervous.

Gray nodded, and watched as the ice mage turned to her oldest student.

"Go ahead Lyon. You can show me the spell you wanted to show me so badly as a demonstration of the basic idea of what we're going to be working on." Ur said to the suddenly extra happy nine-year-old.

"Yes Master Ur." Lyon replied as he stepped a little closer to Ur and then faced more away from Ur and Gray.

"Ready?" Lyon asked, an excited smiled on his face.

Ur nodded, and Gray looked up with curiosity from a little further behind their teacher and Lyon.

"Ice make: ape!" Lyon called out, reaching out with only one hand this time, rather than all the the other times Gray had seen them do it.

A big moving ice ape appeared in front of Lyon. At first Gray felt amazement at the sight of the magic...Lyon turned smiling at them happily, when suddenly Ur stepped forward and bopped the boy on the head.

Gray felt panic rise inside him, fearing it would be his turn next he quickly attempted to remember the correct hand positions as he saw Ur correcting Lyon's technique.

Lyon watched her wondering why it had been wrong to use only one hand, as Gray was silently panicking behind them.

Gray quickly tried to remember the correct positions Ur was using fearfully at seeing her bop the older student over the head.

His parents had never used such harsh ways to correct or teach him, not even for a punishment.

"If you mold with only one hand your spells will be unbalanced, more fragile and weak." Ur explained to Lyon as she corrected the boy's hand positions, unknowing that Gray was still panicking behind them.

By the time Ur was finished lecturing Lyon, Gray had mostly calmed his panic. Ur turned to him, and he glanced up at her, ignoring the sick nauseous feeling in his stomach and the fear he still felt.

He blamed the nightmare.

And how Ur had punched Lyon on the head.

"While Lyon practices, lets go work over this way." Ur said leading the eight-year-old away from where Lyon was practicing Molding ice into different animals.

Gray followed her slowly, keeping his distance slightly because he was tired and scared and was worried she'd bop him on the head like she had Lyon. It had looked pretty painful.

Ur stopped in a large open area, and slowly, she cast the same shield spell as Lyon had, only she did it slowly as he watched from behind.

First she put a fist and or flat hand together, as she spoke.

"Ice make;" and then she brought her hands out to the sides as she said, "shield!"

And with that, a huge amazing, even more impressive shield than the one Lyon had made appeared in front of her, big enough to cover her entire front and slightly out to her sides as well. Plus it had a more beautiful design to it than Lyon's lumpy circle one with smaller circles in it, Ur's was almost like a huge snowflake or flower.

Then the ice mage turned her head, smiling at her younger apprentice.

Gray glanced up at her, but didn't move, still feeling very scared and nervous from both the nightmares and seeing the ice mage's harsh corrections with Lyon.

But she smiled at him so kindly, it almost made him feel a little better. Almost.

"Come here Gray." Ur said gently.

Slowly, watching Ur carefully, Gray approached her, until they were standing side by side.

"First, put you hands like this." Ur instructed, showing him the proper hand gesture for ice make.

A fist with a flat hand on top. Only, it seemed to switch up with the exact positions at different times, like whether to put the flat hand on top or under the hand in a fist.

For this spell, it started at his side, and then out in front of him, and then both hands were to go out to the sides.

"Okay, lets try that one more time." Ur instructed.

Gray kept his left hand flat, and put his fist onto it, then he slowly brought it in front of him, and then both arms out to the sides.

"Very good. Now try again, but this time, you'll say, ice make; shield." Ur explained.

Gray nodded nervously, and started to repeat the movements.

"Ice make; shield!" Gray shouted, feeling a burst of the either-nano surge through his body and shoot out near his hands, and a large thin ice shield appeared in front of him, suddenly knocking him backwards.

" _AH_! _Ugh_..." Gray cried out as the magic flung him backwards into the snow.

Ur glanced down at him in concern, but Gray turned away, embarrassed.

He scratched the back of his head, his elbow pointed upward as he tried to shrug off the awkwardness of his poor attempt at casting an ice shield.

Ur smiled at him.

"Nice job. Try again." She said smiling.

Gray slowly, tiredly got up to his feet, and tried the spell a few more times. Until, at last, it seemed stronger and didn't knock him backwards and shatter in his face. It didn't look at all like Lyon's shield, it more so resembled Ur's, only Gray's didn't look like a flower, it more so resembled a snowflake, but it also seemed to be slightly more fancy than Ur's even. Gray smirked triumphantly, as he glanced back at his teacher, who smiled back at him.

Ur felt pride rise inside her at newest students progress; not only had he started making shields so quickly and well done, but he'd actually _smiled_ at her. Maybe it wasn't a smile of pure happiness, but it was a smile and it wasn't a meaningless fake one.

"Great job." Ur praised.

Gray smiled at her for a moment before he turned away and started to continue to practice.

Ur watched over him as he practiced, slowly his shields became stronger and more stable.

She felt like starting them with Shields or some kind of defence spell was always a good first spell, Lyon's shield looked a lot different than Gray's and Ur's, but it was one static spell that she had taught all her students. But Lyon had pretty quickly favoured the Dynamic ice make spells over the Static ones, and therefore Lyon mostly knew Dynamic, and was not quite as good with the few Static spells that she'd taught him as he was with his Dynamic spells.

She wondered what kind of style Gray would choose eventually, but considering how impressive his shields were already becoming she had a feeling he was not only a fast learner but possibly had a bit of a talent with Static ice make. But she couldn't be sure quite yet. Though she was amazed at how his shield already had a unique look to it. It almost seemed as if it were slightly more detailed than even hers.

Gray remade his shield, feeling amazed at what he was actually doing. He was using magic and making ice appear and form into a huge snowflake shaped shield as big as him!

Only, he couldn't help but hope Ur would teach him something more powerful, so he could become strong enough to beat Deliora.

Gray tried to ignore his thoughts of his old home and family and all that Deliora had done, so he wouldn't be so distracted and could listen better as Ur continued to instruct and praise him as he practiced.

He was trying to be careful as to not mess up because he didn't want to get punched on the head like Lyon, but he felt himself calm down a bit, as the ice mage smiled down at him as he practiced. Plus he couldn't help but feel amazed at the cool magic he was actually using all by himself.

As much as he tried to hold the thoughts back, he wished his parents were here to see this.

But they weren't, so he continued to practice to become stronger, and at that thought he remembered his dad once telling him to become strong. It had been after...something had happened. But for some reason Gray found it somewhat difficult to remember some of his happier past memories over the recent traumatizing memories of the demon's attack. It seemed the painful dark ones came to his mind at any attempt to think of his family or friends making it harder to remember the happy things.

"Are you okay?" Ur asked Gray, noticing something he would've thought was barely noticeable, at least it would be around Lyon.

Fighting back tears, Gray nodded and continued to practice his new magic.


End file.
